Severed Wings of the Angels
by Emerald Twin Blade
Summary: AU. Johan and Judai were inseparable childhood friends that could see Spirits of the departed. What happens when Johan's wealthy mother sends away Judai, the son of a maid, to an All-Boys Academy? Will they ever meet again? Someday soon! Spiritshipping
1. Feather 02 : Tranquility

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or any of the characters, settings, etc. that you find familiar from the show in this fanfic. All she owns in the plot/idea of the fic.

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

HAHA! I finally got this new fic up! It took be a very, _very_ long time to finish this not-chapter. X__x

OH! Speaking of Not-Chapters! This fic's Chapter System will go a ittle bit different from normal...

These first two chapters will be "Feathers," and we'll start with 2, then go to 1. After that, we'll have the Prologue, and then around four more not-chapters (depending on who's story it follows, they'll have different names), and _then_ we'll go back to the usual "Fragment" System that I use.

Be aware that it'll take quite a while for the Shounen-ai and the Yaoi to pop up. XD This is still Spiritshipping, but this is also going to be as detailed as I can possibly make it without getting impatient and just writing like I did **COMATOSE**. XD!

Another thing to keep in mind is that this is very AU. I'm keeping most things the same from the show, but... yeah. Anyway...

Go on! X3

* * *

**: ****Feather 02**** : **Tranquility – _Everything is Fine_

The wind blew gently through the quiet grassland, the tall grass swaying gracefully. The sky was as bright a blue as possible and there wasn't even one cloud floating about. The empty field of grass rolled on for miles, with no commoners' house to disturb its tranquility. A dirt road ran through the plain, leading up to the one shelter within the area. It was not much a house as it was a _mansion_, and a tall one, at that. The extremely wide white mansion stood tall with what seemed to be at least three floors, several windows had been pulled open so that the pleasant wind could bring its breeze into the warm house of obvious wealth. White curtains waved inwardly to the rooms they had been placed in, the sapphire blue windowsills gleaming from the bright sunlight of noon.

Childish laughter rang down the corridors decorated with fine wooden ornaments and royal blue walls, the echo of scurrying feet filling the second floor. Two young boys ran down the long hallway, one chasing the other.

The little one running ahead of the other one had messy, naturally spiked brown hair with a large patch of orange atop his young head. Innocent chocolate brown eyes sparkled mischievously as he held a toy Pegasus in his arms, laughing as he continued onward. He wore a scarlet red T-shirt and too-big white jeans, the pants falling down little-by-little with every few steps he took. His right hand momentarily dropped from the white stuffed animal to pull up the side of his pants before going back to holding onto the plaything.

The slightly taller boy who chased after the brunette also had chaotic and genuinely spiked hair, but the color was of a beautiful teal blue. Brilliant green hues stared unwaveringly at his best friend, a radiant smile gracing his lips as his face expressed pure, playful amusement. His long-sleeved, snow white top was thin and almost see-through, its lavender collar lining separating it from the pale skin of his neck. Dark blue slacks clothed his legs, ending at his ankles and showing his socked-feet as he ran after the other with complete balance.

"You can't run forever, Ju-chan!" the blunette exclaimed, panting through snickers.

The higher-pitched voice of the six-year-old boy giggled before squeaking aloud, "I do not have to, Jo-kun! You just have to get tired and stop!"

"Not gonna happen!"

It was then that the seven-year-old picked up his pace a bit, coming up close enough to the brunette to reach out and grab at the back of his collar, but it was an expected plan of action. The brown-eyed boy ducked out of the way before speeding off down another hallway, laughing triumphantly and looking back over his shoulder.

"Not fast enough!"

"What is all of this racket?—OH!" a feminine voice gasped from in front of the youngest boy, "Judai Yuki!!"

The brunette called Judai Yuki turned his head to face forward again just in time to ram his face into the lower abdomen of an older woman. The momentum that he had built up from all the running he did caused the rest of his body to throw itself at her legs, making her fall forward, over him, as he fell to the floor facing the other direction. The blunette came to a stop two yards away from the accident, picking up his frilly-sleeved left wrist to wipe at his forehead as he panted heavily.

"Are… you two okay?"

The indigo blue-haired woman got up to her elbows, dragging her legs away from Judai's back as she got up into a sitting position. Her legs sat off to her left side, seemingly liquid paper white, but really just covered in blank-colored pantyhose. Her pale skin was hidden beneath a long-sleeved, pale pink dress with patterns of white lace sewn into the skirt, and a royal blue sapphire pendant hung over her neck in an attempt to lead the gaze of others away from her ivory skin and to the colorful jewelry. Oceanic eyes turned onto the young brunette, blue-green hues narrowed into an arrogant glare.

"Troublesome child… Watch where you're going! Especially while on the second floor." She barked haughtily before putting her hands over her skirt and pulling herself up to stand again.

Judai blinked once he got to sit up properly, looking up at her confusedly with a cute tilt of the head, "Toublesome…?"

After smoothing out her pink dress, she turned half-away from him as unnatural hues looked out the corner of her eyes at him, "No, dear common boy… _Troublesome_. Learn it. Remember it. It's all you'll ever be."

Even though she had pointed out the pronunciation of the word, it still did not give the young one a definition. He opened his mouth to ask again, but then he saw the frantic shaking of his best friend's head. That was a signal to stay quiet; that much he knew. Closing his mouth, he watched with curious brown eyes as the other boy began to speak.

"Kaa-sama... You don't have to be so mean."

The woman spun to face her son, her scowl instantly changing to a blissful smile as she fell to her knees beside the bright blue-haired boy and threw her arms around him to hold him close. She rubbed her cheek against his soft, spiky hair with her eyes closed, a girlish giggle escaping her and making her seem utterly out of character.

"Oh, my adorable son! I'm not being mean, Johan… I'm merely telling him the truth! You'll learn more when you get older."

Johan Andersen gulped, having been trapped in a bone-crushing embrace. How was he going to get out of this one? The last few times that this happened, Judai had to do something that his mother called '_undignified_' to get her to let him go. After that, they had run off before she could say or do anything else. If he tried to pull another stunt like the previous ones again, it would likely not lead to something good on her part.

Opening one green eye, he noticed how his best friend seemed to be getting ready to pull off another outrageous feat as he exaggeratedly folded up his imaginary long sleeves and stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth. Johan tried to say something, _anything_ that would stop his friend from doing something stupid. His voice was meek and raspy, however, with how tightly his mother held onto him. He couldn't do anything to stop him.

Just as Judai was about to pounce onto the older woman's back, a gentle hand placed itself over his shoulder, sucking the excitement and preparation right out of his body. Chocolate brown eyes looked upward in confusion, meeting with clear, golden brown eyes that resembled solid honey. He blinked as the womanly figure bent down and put her hands to his hips, picking him up and carrying him on her left arm by making him sit there. His right arm slipped around her neck for support so that he would not fall off.

"Ju-chan, you don't have to be so thoughtless… That wouldn't have been a good idea." The orange-haired woman explained softly as she caressed his cheek kindly.

The little boy smiled, a short chuckle rumbling in his throat before he hugged her, "I am sorry, Kaa-san. But I thought about it first!"

Ms. Seikou Yuki followed her son's quiet chuckle with one of her own before looking over to poor Johan, whose face was almost as blue as his hair. Bending back down, she let Judai stand beside her, his hands clenching a handful of her light blue maid skirt in a clingy manner.

Her fair expression transformed to one of firm fortitude, "Jinsei-chan, I thought you loved your son! Why're you trying to kill him?"

Jinsei Kisaki Andersen froze when the maid spoke, her grip going limp enough for Johan to wiggle away from her grasp and fall to his knees facing her left side, panting in an attempt to breathe in all of the air she had deprived him of for the passed minute or so. The blue-haired lady of the mansion got back up to stand, glaring menacingly at the other.

"You have absolutely _no_ right to call me that, you worthless handmaid!"

Judai's mother picked up her right hand and held it over her chest, faking a hurt look, "Oh, but Mrs. Andersen! We grew _up_ together back in Japan! We even met our husbands together! How can you say that?"

"Do you _want_ to lose your job!? Go clean one of the rooms or something… I want you out of my sight. I'm sick of looking at you _and_ your troublesome little monster!" Mrs. Andersen roared, turning away from the maid and her son in emphasis that she no longer wanted to see them.

When she called Judai a monster, the little brunette flinched further behind his mother, his fingers curling tighter into her skirt. He may not have understood what the word '_troublesome_' meant, but he knew what a '_monster_' was.

Seikou Yuki felt the sudden change in her son's behavior, feeling his shock and slight fear as if it were floating into the air like a dark cloud. Her eyes narrowed a little and her lips curled into a frown, her left hand placing itself over her little Judai's thick brown and orange hair.

"Yes, ma'am… Mrs. Andersen." She hissed bitterly, turning her back on her boss and leading Judai away.

Judai, although relieved to be leaving behind that horrible situation, looked back over his shoulder toward Johan, who seemed to be held back by his mother's tight, clamp-like grip on his small wrist. The hopeful look on his face reached his best friend as he mouthed something to him. Johan's emerald eyes lit up momentarily once he read the younger boy's lips, his head nodding shortly so that his mother would not notice his movement.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

The backyard of the huge mansion was home to a small forest; several trees grew around the circumference of the backyard together, giving anyone, or any_thing_, the perfect place to hide. The entire plain and forest land that the house was built on had been rumored to be haunted by the spirits of the dead. Many other families had tried to build their homes in the area, but as the people they hired to build the house tried to begin the project, they were scared away. Contrary to what most people thought, the ghosts that could be found there were not _all_ evil… but there were also some very good ones, such as the ghosts of unusual animals and heroes.

Judai Yuki walked across the clearing of grass toward the wood's right direction. Once he passed the first tree, he broke off into a run further in until he turned toward the center of the forest, coming up to a small area clear of trees that had been hidden within the wooded area. In the middle of the rectangular area sat a large white statue of a woman with broad angel wings folded at its back. A kind, blank stare of empty eyes stared at the young boy, a pleasant smile carved onto its face. Beside the sculpture was a small bench of stone, its flat surface looking quite inviting to the out-of-breath boy.

He took a deep breath, trying to quench his thirst for oxygen quicker as he tiredly dragged his feet over to the seat. Plopping himself down nearest to the statue, he leaned over to place his elbows over his knees, his head lowering as he sighed sadly and closed his eyes. Mrs. Andersen had called him '_troublesome_' ever since his mother brought him to live with her as she worked for the wealthy family. After his father had gone missing, it was all she could do, at the time… but it was thanks to that incident that he was able to meet and become best friends with Johan Andersen. Even though he often got into trouble, it was either because he was not paying attention or because he was trying to help his absolute best friend.

The sadness in the brunette's heart must have been evident, because he could feel the presence of many others suddenly appear in the air. A slim hand covered in a long, red fingerless glove placed itself over his right shoulder, drawing his attention enough to make chocolate brown eyes reopen to look over to its transparent, liquid paper white fingers. The expression on his face blanked out, but his eyes still held the same baffled sorrow as he lifted his head to look behind him.

A woman with skin of pure ivory and bright green eyes was looking down at him, a look of worry for him making her seem like a worried mother. She wore what looked to have been a full-body suit of crimson red at one time, but now it looked so torn up around her upper torso that it looked like flames were barely covering her. Paint of the same color red had been spread over her eyes, sliding down the bottom of her eyes as pointed slits. A golden helmet with a jewel as bright a green as her eyes embedded at its midpoint sat atop of her head, her long black hair flowing down to her hips like one lengthy fin that had been dyed a cloudy grey at its end. Taking her hand away from his shoulder, she walked around to sit beside him on the bench, smiling comfortingly.

"**Are you alright, Ju-chan?"** she asked gently, her deep and melodious voice ringing in the air like an echo in a cave.

Judai lowered his head again, shaking it before replying, "No… Jo-kun's kaa-sama called me a '_troublesome monster_.' Burst Lady, what does '_troublesome_' mean? I am sad that she called me a monster… but I am still confused."

The fiery-spirited Burst Lady's reassuring face changed to one of concern and hesitation. She was unsure if she should tell him or not, considering that he was still a young child… and that the woman who called herself Johan Andersen's mother only wished to torture everyone around her, excluding her family. Bringing her hands together in her lap, she took a deep breath before looking to him once again and explaining as simply and painlessly as possible to a six-year-old.

"**Well… when a person is troublesome, they cause a lot of trouble for one or more persons around them. If a person calls you troublesome, then they are either very annoyed by you or don't like you very much…"** When she saw the look of grief increase on his face, she decided to add, **"… You don't have to worry too much about it, though! Jo-kun's kaa-sama doesn't like anyone **_**but**_** Jo-kun and his otou-sama."**

Judai smiled weakly, nodding slightly before another spirit appeared in front of him. This one was a very tall, muscular man covered in what seemed to be spring green feathers. His eyes were hidden behind a red mask, but unlike Burst Lady's, his was a part of the spiky green helmet that completely concealed the top and sides of his head. Both of his arms were completely encased in the light color and his forearms were wrapped in feathers like arm warmers; the difference was in his hands as his left one was a dark crimson talon while his right was a normal, human hand. The strangest thing about him was the fact that feathery white wings came out of his back, giving him an almost-angelic look, though he clearly was no angel. He bent down on one knee so that his hidden eyes could meet with Judai's chocolate ones.

"**You have no reason to be sad, Judai. She is the only one who thinks that of you, and if you haven't yet noticed, everyone else in that house likes you. Although…"** the near-completely green man spoke, smiling reassuringly at the young boy, **"I think that the only person whose opinion should matter to you is your best friend."**

The small brunette smiled genuinely as he nodded with total confidence, "You are right, Featherman! I should not care about what anybody else thinks! As long as Jo-kun is still okay with me and is still my best friend, everything will be fine!"

Suddenly, a rustling sound could be heard coming from one of the bushes around the clearing. Judai and the other two turned their heads, only to see Johan Andersen step through the bush and into their sight. Judai Yuki smiled at his best friend, especially after what he, Burst Lady and Featherman had just discussed. He waved cheerfully at the blunette until he was close enough to talk to without yelling. Burst Lady got up from her spot beside the younger boy, moving to stand beside Featherman as Johan took her seat to be next to Judai.

The young Andersen was grinning hesitantly, "Are you okay, Ju-chan? I'm sorry for what my kaa-sama said about you; she can be very, very mean sometimes."

The brunette shook his head, "I am okay. Nothing to worry about! Burst Lady and Featherman helped me feel better!"

Johan looked to the spirits of Fire and Wind, bowing his head to them in thanks, "Thank you for helping him!"

"Don't mention it." The black-haired woman smiled, waving goodbye to the both of them before turning around and fading away; Featherman followed behind her.

"So, what should we do now, Jo-kun? I left your stuffy in the house…" Judai said, pouting and lowering his head as if expecting to be yelled at.

Johan recognized this action and put his left hand under Judai's chin, pulling him upward to look at him, "It's alright… really. We can just play with everybody else out here!"

The playful sparkle of youth within his emerald eyes was enough to make the younger boy smile brightly, nodding, "Okay! Do you want to call them or should I?"

Johan answered by standing back up, cupping his hands around his mouth before yelling aloud, "Ruuuubyyyy!!!"

His shout seemed to echo through the forest, but as soon as his voice was no longer audible, he felt an abrupt pressure throw itself at the back of his head. He let out a yelp as he fell face-first into the grass. Judai, who had seen it all, laughed hysterically at what had just happened.

"Oww… Ruby, that _hurt_!" Johan whined, pulling himself up to sit Indian-style on the ground.

"**Rubi, rubi!"** giggled the strange animal-like spirit.

The creature looked like a purple-colored squirrel with two pairs of ears instead of just one. It had short limbs, but it brought up its two front legs to cover its mouth as it laughed in amusement. Bright red eyes blinked at the two boys, the large, circular, red jewel at the topmost end of its tail gleaming in the sunlight. It floated in the air beside the blunette's head, waving that long, purple tail behind it eagerly.

"Wow! I have never seen you do that before, Ruby! How did you push him down when you are not alive?" Judai questioned, hopping off of the bench and running over, only to stare directly into Ruby's face.

"**Rubi, rubi! Rubi, rubi, bi!"** it squeaked as it started spinning around in circles to chase its tail.

When Johan heard its reply, he too started laughing before throwing out an order with a point of his right index finger into the sky, "Ruby Carbuncle! Call for everybody else!"

"**Ru**_**bi**_**!!"** the purple spirit piped, launching itself into the air and throwing its tail upward so that the ruby embedded there could let loose a brilliant and shining red light.

A few seconds later, other glows of light appeared around them. Sapphire, Amber, Emerald, Cobalt, Topaz and Amethyst gems faded into visibility before breaking open to reveal the animal spirits from within their beautiful prison.

"**Prrr… Jo-kun, what took so long?"** a large, pink-colored cat purred as it approached him and rubbed against his cheek, its soft fur making the blunette throw his arms around its neck to hug it.

"We had some trouble with my kaa-sama… Amethyst, you're so much softer than any of the blankets or pillows in the house." He complimented, completely enthralled with rubbing his face into her neck.

"**A-ah… Thank you…"** Amethyst Cat blushed, sitting down beside the young boy.

A white tiger with black stripes let a low growl escape its throat as it laid itself down on the ground, folding its right paw over its left one, **"He's just being nice…"**

The cat laughed, glancing slyly over to him while Johan continued pressing himself against her innocently, **"You're just jealous! You can learn a thing or two from our little Jo-kun, Topaz!"**

"**Maybe **_**you**_** could, too!"** Topaz Tiger snapped back before laying its head down atop its big paws.

"**Now, now, you two… This isn't the time nor the place to fight."** Said the huge, furry elephant as it shook its several tusks threateningly.

"… **sorry, Amber."** Topaz mumbled, turning its head away from the others and showing the circular topaz jewel embedded at its shoulder.

Amber Mammoth nodded its head shortly before looking over to Judai, who was currently climbing up onto the large green tortoise's rocky shell. He laughed childishly as the creature tried to tell him to be careful.

"**Leave him alone, Emerald… He goes onto your back all the time; he should be used to it already."**

"**I… I guess you're right."** Emerald Tortoise agreed in defeat, but that did not stop it from looking upward as far back as it could to say it again, **"Be very, very careful, Ju-chan!"**

"Whee!!" the little brunette exclaimed as he slid down the front of Emerald's shell, landing with a soft _**THUD**_ on the tortoise's head. The impact spooked it and made it quickly pull its head, legs and tail into its shell, giving Judai absolutely no place to land but the ground, "Waah!!"

He shut his eyes tightly, readying his rear end for the crash it was about to have with the grass, but then he felt a light pressure encircle his waist, suspending him in the air. Opening one eye and then blinking both open, chocolate hues looked over to Amber Mammoth, only to see that its trunk was wrapped around him to place him safely onto the ground.

"… **or I could be wrong."**

"**I-I told you to be careful!"** Emerald Tortoise repeated, its voice echoing from inside of its shell.

"I _was_ being careful! I was just sliding down, but then your head went _POOF_!" Judai explained, throwing his arms up into the air for emphasis with that last word.

"**Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh!! That's some great sound effects, Ju-chan!"** cackled the brown-feathered eagle, putting its left wing over its face to hide its laughter, but failing miserably to do so.

The last of the Crystal Beasts took a step forward, its sapphire blue horn glowing for a moment to get everyone's attention. When all eyes were on the white stallion, its large wings unfolded to blow a light breeze toward them all, making each of the spirits slowly fade out of sight until it was the only one left.

"Sapphire… what're you—?" Johan began, having let go of Amethyst Cat as it disappeared and turning to look at the Pegasus.

Sapphire Pegasus hushed him before disappearing itself, "Shh… You two must go; someone you've both missed dearly has returned."

The two boys blinked, looking at each other and then back toward the mansion. They strained their ears, listening passed the wind and the trees and grass… until they heard a familiar vehicle somewhere beyond the forest. Wide smiles materialized on their faces as they both exclaimed in excitement.

"Jim's back!!" They both took off, running back to their home as fast as they could so they could see if they were right about who was really there.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

A dusty, midnight black pickup truck hopped up and down as it drove itself slowly into the huge driveway, stopping a few yards away from the steps leading to the off-white doors. The dust on the vehicle was so thick that one could find it _very_ hard to peer through the passenger windows to find out who was sitting inside. When the passenger door was kicked open, it bounced back a few centimeters before settling open again, revealing the nine-year-old boy sitting there with an unbuckled seatbelt in hand.

His oceanic blue eyes brightened as he swung his legs over to the side of the seat and jumped down from the old, tall Chevy. His brown boots hit the dirt ground with the soft sound of pebbles rustling beneath him, his hands coming up to straighten his white, long-sleeved shirt and light black vest. The wind began to pick up again, its cool touch running through his spiky black hair. He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath and letting it out before looking up at the huge house with a huge smile.

"Home, sweet home…"

"Onii-san! Onii-san!!" called a voice in the distance.

Jim Cook Andersen blinked, turning to look off toward the right corner of the wide house, suspecting that he had heard the sound come from that direction.

"Jim-san! Jim-san!!"

His confused look gradually changed to one of happiness as the two younger boys rounded the corner and came sprinting towards him. He began to open his mouth to say something, but then his little brother and his friend tackled him to the ground, making him let out a yelp rather than a greeting. The three boys laughed as they all lay in a pile on the driveway, happy to see each other again.

"Onii-san! You're back!" Seven-year-old Johan Andersen exclaimed, throwing his arms around his older brother's neck and rubbing his cheek into it excitedly.

"It is about time! Your six months of being in Austar-Austi-Austili—" Judai Yuki tried to say, clinging to the oldest boy's right arm.

Jim laughed again, gently taking Johan's arms away from his neck and motioning for him to get Judai off. When the little blunette did so, the two younger boys sat Indian-style and stared at him, waiting for him to speak.

The black-haired boy winked at the brunette once he had gotten back up to his feet, holding up his index finger up in a matter-of-factly way, "It's Aus_tralia_, Mate. Don't go forgettin' that, either! One of these days, I'm goin' ta be takin' the both of you there with me!"

"Really, really?!" Johan and Judai asked in unison, amazement evident on their faces.

The oldest boy closed his eyes and nodded, clenching his hands into fists and putting them to his hips as if he were an important person who could decide everything on his own, "Yup! I even asked Ojii-san! He said that he'd get Kaa-sama to let you two come with us when you're both old enough."

The two boys cheered, jumping up eagerly and running to Jim's side to cling to either one of his arms. Laughing happily, Jim picked them up as they hung off of his arms, spinning around as well as he could with the uneven balance of weight on him. Judai seemed to be quite a bit heavier than Johan, yet looked to be a lot skinnier than him. It only made him laugh harder when he finally lost his own balance and sent the three of them tumbling to the ground again.

It was only when they heard the slamming of the two open doors of the black pickup truck that they ceased all noise to look up and see a silver-haired man standing at the foot of the Chevy, watching them. Bushy silver eyebrows effectively hid his eyes and a furry silver mustache sat over his upper lip. He, like Jim, was wearing a white long-sleeved, but where they differed was that his vest and jeans were the same midnight black-color as the vehicle they had entered with. The dark brown cowboy hat atop his head seemed so out-of-place on him with how absolutely fragile he looked. He was not so much on the muscular side, though he was not too skinny either. What could be seen of his lips seemed to be curled upward into a smile, and when he spoke, his voice came out with a bit of a rasp and an Australian accent as strong as Jim's.

"Now, now, Boys! You've welcomed back your brother; what about your poor Ojii-san?"

"Ojii-san!" Johan cried, running to the silver-haired old man and hopping up to give him a hug, only to have a long left arm wrap itself around him as Ginka Andersen bent down to be level with him.

His right arm was held out, ready to catch the other, but the brunette was merely smiling hesitantly. When Johan's grandfather looked up after waiting a few seconds, one fuzzy eyebrow raised itself high enough to show a spring green eye, watching with patience.

"Welcome back, Andersen-sama…" Judai said, his chocolate brown eyes looked back with a bit of a frightened shyness and an excited shine to them.

The old man, Johan and Jim stared at him in confusion; usually, whenever he and Jim came back to the Andersen mansion, Judai would run up at the same time as Johan and would receive a hug, as well. After a moment had passed, the reason as to why this could happen dawned on Mr. Andersen.

"Ju-chan… did someone tell you something again?" he asked simply.

The brunette nodded solemnly, eyes going down to watch the pebbles with a sudden interest, "J-Jo-kun's kaa-sama saw me get a hug, too, last time you came back… and said that I could not do that anymore. That I had to show respect by staying away."

Johan's grandfather's look softened as he still held his arm open for him, "It's alright… If I tell you that it's okay, then it's okay. You're practically family, Ju-chan! You can even call me Ojii-san, like Jo-kun and Jim."

Judai looked up abruptly, a blush spreading over his cheeks; he never had grandparents before… His mother's parents were back in Japan, and from what he had heard, his father's disappearance had something to _do_ with his parents, as well. A wide smile came over him as he nodded sheepishly, beginning to walk over. However, those slow steps quickly changed into a dash as his confidence built up and he too jumped into Ginka Andersen's arms.

"Ojii-san!"

Johan smiled happily; Judai was considered a part of his family! At least, by his grandfather and big brother. He was held close to the old man along with the brunette, a warm feeling coming over his chest as he sighed in contentment. This was truly perfect…

"Judai Yuki!!"

… Spoke too soon.

The four males who were near the old, dirty truck winced at the sound of the shrill scream. As if they had not seen _that_ coming… Mrs. Jinsei Kisaki Andersen stood at the top of the stairs, glaring down at the little brunette who had finally given into the feeling of being accepted into a family. This look instantly made Judai flinch out of Ginka Andersen's grasp, making him walk about five feet away with his head held low.

A feeling of sympathy washed over the old European's heart as he watched Judai leave, but it melted away as he looked to his son's chosen wife with a blank expression. He slowly got up to his feet, with help from Jim and Johan. He coughed some as he cleared his throat, putting a right hand behind his head as he greeted the woman.

"Hey there, Jinsei! I've brought Jim back, as usual!" he said as good-naturedly as possible.

Johan and Jim's mother, once Judai had gotten the right distance away, smiled brilliantly as she raced down the steps, holding her dress skirt up so that she would not trip and fall. When she was close enough, she pulled the black-haired nine-year-old into her arms and rubbed her cheek into the soft spikes of his hair lovingly.

"Jimu! Welcome back, Sweetie! How was Australia this time? You didn't get hurt, did you? Oh, what am I asking? Of course, you didn't; not with your Ojii-san with you!"

The flattery might have actually made Ginka feel complimented if not for the fact that he knew how she was. It had been a sad day when he found out that she had something called _Mania_. It was something similar to a bipolar disorder, if there were any differences between the two conditions at all. It had started a little while after his son, Thomas "Tomu" Andersen, had gotten the very job that made the small Andersen family rich.

When Tomu Andersen had gotten a huge career there in Europe, he took it without question… but it was in a place far away from where their little white house was. He promised that he would do his best for his family before leaving, and once the huge mansion had taken the place of the small house, things were starting to get much easier. However, without him around, Jinsei only had her sons and servants for company. Missing her husband so much, she fell into a depression that soon led to her current condition. Her moods would swing from depression for the literal loss of her husband, to anger toward her servants and Judai, to love and adoration toward her sons, and so on.

Ginka Andersen shook his head, clearing out the memory of several things that _could_ have gone better in their life. When he snapped back to the present, he realized that said-woman was staring straight at him with a pleasant smile and tilt of the head, waiting patiently for something. He laughed embarrassedly.

"Oh, sorry, my Dear… What was that?"

"I was wondering what you gave my little Jimu for his birthday! You kept him for his birthday in Australia, so I hope you gave him something nice." She said with a childish pout, holding the little boy's head closer into her chest, making him feel quite uneasy.

"W-well…" he began, his embarrassment obvious by now.

When Jim was finally able to pry himself out of his mother's arms, he ran back to the truck, exclaiming over his shoulder, "Just wait, Mom! You'll love her!"

Jinsei's eyes lit up, "You brought a little girlfriend with him?!"

"Not quite…" her father-in-law mumbled, turning to watch the scene unfold as he heard Jim's brown boots thud against the ground, signaling his return.

"Let me see what you're Ojii-san got for—GOOD LORD!!"

When Jim made it back around to the right side of the truck where everybody was, he held a young, medium-sized crocodile in his arms. The reptile stared through yellow eyes at her with its huge mouth opening up to yawn.

"JIMU, YOU PUT THAT THING DOWN THIS INSTANT!" she shrieked, clinging to Ginka's left arm in fright.

"Whoa!" Johan gasped in interest.

"Cool!!" Judai called from back by the corner of the house, watching with eyes wide in wonder, "He gave you a crocamadilay!"

Jim laughed good-naturedly, "No, no, Ju-chan! She's a croc_odile_! And her name's Karen! Isn't that right, Karen?"

The female crocodile closed its long mouth and seemed to nod, letting out a pleasant hiss. The black-haired boy smiled, hugging her close.

"She's the best gift ever!"

"Ginka-san… May I speak to you… in private…?" the woman said slowly, her shock slowly beginning to change her mood.

"Aww… but I wanted to—" the old man began, but was interrupted immediately.

"NOW!!" Jinsei Andersen shouted, getting everyone's attention as she stared with rage and surprise swirling in her insane oceanic eyes.

Nodding in defeat, Ginka allowed himself to be yanked up the steps to the house and through the big white doors.

With the two adults out of the picture, Judai and Johan raced up to Jim and watched in amazement as he put the crocodile on the ground, allowing it to look up at the two little boys with curiosity.

"Yay! Is Karen going to be a new member of our family, Onii-san?" Johan asked, sparkles of hope in his eyes.

Jim nodded, "She sure is!"

"Me, too?" Judai asked, a light blush of embarrassment over his cheeks.

The other two smiled, nodding, "Yup!"

* * *

Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:

Haha! Much friendship there! And yes, ANOTHER DISORDER! XD! Not to Judai this time! XDD!!

The big conflicts actually start in the next chapter... and I think the next one'll be a bit longer than this one was. I don't remember.

I actually wrote out a bit of an outline for each chapter, so that I know what to put in each one. It makes it a lot easier for me, especially since I forget things very, _very_ easily. XD! So you can thank my outline for everything I post in this story.

SO! What'd y'all think? This is only the beginning, so you probably don't think too much of it. The next chapter'll likely be better, with more drama and stuffs. XP


	2. Feather 01 : Fear

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or any of the characters that appear in this fic that you have seen in the show. She _does_, however, own the idea for this fic and a handful of characters... such as Johan's mother & grandfather, Judai's mother and another new character that pops up in this chapter, but has a bigger role in the next chapter. XD!

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

ZOMFG, you have NO idea how hard it was to write this not-chapter. XP

Well, it was more hard to resist procrastinating, in which I procrastinated for about two days... and then finally got on with it. yesterday, since it's 12:31 AM right now.

I just finished revising & editing it, so there shouldn't be _too_ many spelling errors... and I actually finished writing this not-chapter about an hour and a half ago. HAHA! I would'a finished revising & editing sooner, but my boyfriend called me. X3! I talked to him for a little while, but then asked him if I could call him back so that I could finish this one completely.

ANYWAY, go! Enjoy the fruits of my labor! XD

HOPE EVERYBODY HAD A GOOD THANKSGIVING! :D

'CAUSE MINE SUCKED! D:

* * *

**: ****Feather 01**** : **Fear – _Make It Go Away_

So many things seemed to be happening that day… both good and bad. Jinsei Kisaki Andersen, Johan Andersen's mother, deeply hurt Judai Yuki's feelings; that is one for the bad. Jim Cook Andersen, Johan's older brother, came back to the Andersen mansion along with Ginka Andersen, Johan's grandfather; there is one for the good. Mrs. Andersen got angry with Judai again, for being too close to her father-in-law and to Jim, and then got freaked out of her mind when she found out that Jim's grandfather had given him a crocodile for his birthday away from home; so that is _two_ more points for the bad.

The day was still not over yet, though… Maybe the good could somehow catch up.

With no adult supervision, the three young boys went off to the right side of the house, playing around in the midst of several trees to stay hidden from anyone who should be sent to find them. Their loud, cheerful laughter, however, would easily lead someone to their current location.

Again, a handful of spirits had appeared to them, but Jim had not been gifted with the ability to see them. Seven-year-old Johan jumped up into the air, his arms outstretched to grab at the purple, squirrel-like creature that floated above him. Ruby Carbuncle merely levitated higher into the air, its giggles echoing through the air. The slightly younger boy laughed, pointing at the little Crystal Beast with one hand and using the other to hold onto his aching gut.

Jim was watching all of this with a weak smile on his face from where he sat beneath one of the bigger trees surrounding them, its branches and leaves shading him from the brightening sun. Beside him lay his new best friend, the crocodile his grandfather had given to him, Karen. His right hand was wrapped over her back as her long snout laid itself over his knees, a soft, comfortable hiss coming from her as her eyes fell closed.

"**Hey, Ju-chan! Shall we make this a bit more of a party?"** another spirit piped up as it materialized at the six-year-old's side.

This particular spirit, unlike the Crystal Beasts, seemed to actually be human. He wore an outfit made completely up of light and dark blue colors, and there were long, silver gun-like shooters over his arms. At his back were two cylindrical tanks with metal tubes connecting from them to the shooters, and every time this man moved, it was possible to hear liquid splashing and moving inside of them. A white cape also adorned his back, stretching over his broad shoulders. A light blue helmet-mask was over his head and eyes, hiding all but his smiling mouth.

Judai nodded eagerly, bouncing up and down on his heels as he looked up at the blue spirit, "Yes! Let us do it, Bubbleman!"

"**Alright, then!!"** Bubbleman exclaimed, jumping up high into the air and doing a 360 degree spin before holding his arms out straight in front of him and aiming down toward the three boys, **"Let's start this party with some bubbles!!"**

Out from the shooters over his arms came several clear and see-through bubbles, the spheres of liquid floating downward in the air to encircle the area they were all in. Jim Andersen's eyes went wide when the bubbles suddenly appeared; even _he_ could see them! His meek smile grew into a wide one until he began to laugh at how amazing it all was.

"_**Bark, bark! Bark, bark, bark!!**_**"** The sound of a dog barking echoed through the air until its source finally appeared to them.

An apparently mechanical dog hopped into existence, its black, metal body shining in the afternoon light and causing the lines of blue energy over it to glow vividly. Its mouth opened up wide as it barked animatedly, hopping back up into the air toward a bubble and biting at it, only to have it pop from the sharpness of its teeth.

Judai Yuki laughed aloud, scurrying over to the dog-like spirit and jumping onto its back, fitting on top of it like a cowboy on a horse's back, "Pop those bubbles, Wroughtweiler!!"

Wroughtweiler let out a howl before bouncing onward, floating into the air and biting at any of the spheres of liquid that came into range of its mouth. Judai leaned forward, his short arms wrapped around the mechanical dog's neck to keep from falling off.

The black-haired boy looked up, watching in astonishment; without eyes that could see the spirits, it looked as if Judai were _flying_ on his own. The spirits in this area really _were_ something if the living could cling to them and float like that. It kind of made him want to experience it firsthand.

Johan, who had noticed the look of longing on his older brother's face, smiled and looked over to the tree opposite of his. There, hidden among the leaves, was another human spirit, watching silently. The little blunette motioned for him to come out into the open, and after a few seconds, the spirit had appeared before him.

It was another male spirit, but he looked very different from the others that had appeared that day. His entire upper torso was bare, save for several dark red markings over his chest and shoulders. He had long black hair held up into a spiky black ponytail and had a huge sword strapped to his back with help from a leather rope. There were bandages tied around his wrists and stomach, and long pieces of clothing were wrapped around his waist to fall down almost like a skirt that was cut off at both sides. The same red markings on his body were painted over his face, but his eyes were hard and wise, staring down at the little Andersen boy. He didn't speak, but merely listened.

Johan whispered to the spirit, "Would you help my onii-san fly?"

The half-naked man stared at him for a moment, but nodded before disappearing into thin air and reappearing to Jim's left side. Karen's reptilian eyes snapped open, staring up at the wild man with suspicion. The two held each others gazes for a few moments before the crocodile moved off of the black-haired boy. Jim looked to the female animal, confusion over his face until it automatically changed to surprise when an invisible pressure wrapped itself around his stomach.

"Wh-whoa!!" he yelped, being lifted up into the air.

Johan and Ruby Carbuncle started laughing at how flustered the older boy was getting before the little blunette explained, "I got Wildman to help you fly, Onii-san! It's okay!!"

Jim gulped, trying to calm himself down as he felt the pressure around his waist shift so that two strong hands felt like they were holding him up beneath his arms. Turning his head a little to look behind him, his oceanic eyes went wide when he thought he saw the vague outline of a large, muscular man holding him up. An embarrassed blush spread over the young boy's face as he suddenly realized that he _was_ being held up by a spirit; he looked down toward the ground, seeing the shadow of Wildman on the ground near his own. _That_ had done it; these spirits were much more than ghosts and there was nothing anybody could do to make him think otherwise.

"Take him up higher, Wildman!!" Johan exclaimed, spinning around on his toes with Ruby spiraling around his head in the opposite direction.

"Wait—_what_?!" Jim gasped as Wildman floated up into the air, holding firmly onto him so that he would not fall, "A-aahh!!"

His initial fear of heights began to fade away as he realized that he was safe and that he was _flying_. Flying without an airplane, jetpack or balloons. An excited smile came to him as he held his arms straight out and felt the cool wind rush passed his face. The feeling was amazing, and looking down at Johan and the bubbles was not only unordinary, but rather fun. Jim began to laugh as he was brought down to the ground and gently placed on his feet. The pressure beneath his arms vanished, but then he felt an invisible hand ruffle the spiky black hair at the top of his head. His smile widened when he looked over to his little brother, watching him run up to him to land a heavy hug on him.

"That looked like fun! Did you like it, Onii-san??"

Jim nodded while laughing, his arms slipping around the other's waist as he replied, "That was great!! Thanks so much, Jo-kun! And thank you, too, Wildman!"

He had looked off behind Johan, seeing the blurry outline of the spirit standing there. Johan let go of his brother to turn around and look at the half-naked figure, bowing his head slightly in thanks.

"Whoa! WHOA, BOY, WHOA!!" shouted Judai from high up in the air.

The three of them looked up in time to see Wroughtweiler stand on its hind legs in thin air, sending a _very_ off-balance Judai Yuki flying off of its back and down toward the ground. He let out a loud yell of fear, afraid that he might die from the fall.

Johan and Jim instantly got scared, as well, shouting in unison, "JU-CHAN!!"

Wildman immediately sprung into action, using his strong legs to jump up high into the air, catching the brunette in his arms. Doing a front flip in the air, he landed on one of the higher branches of the tree Jim had been sitting under earlier. Judai sighed in relief, smiling up at the spirit that saved him. Wildman's normally expressionless face formed a small grin, but it was short-lived when the branch seemed to break under the spirit's weight. The two began to fall again, but this time with branches and leaves to hack at Wildman's back and to scratch lightly at Judai's face.

"**Bubbleman to the Rescue!!"** Bubbleman exclaimed, throwing his right arm straight and shooting out one huge bubble.

The bubble floated to the two, catching them both inside of it and letting them bounce slightly. Wildman and Judai blinked at the sudden feeling of safety; a bubble just saved them. It slowly floated down to the ground, only to pop against the grass and allow Wildman to stand there with Judai, safe in his arms.

"Ju-chan!!" Johan called, running up to the tall, muscular spirit to see if his friend was okay after all that had just happened to them.

Wildman put the brunette down onto the ground, watching as he almost lost his footing but kept his balance with the help of Johan's hand holding onto his.

"I am fine…" Judai assured, grinning weakly, "That was scary, though…"

Johan let go of his best friend's hand and threw his arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug, "I'm so glad you're okay!"

Jim watched the two as he slipped his thumbs through the belt loops near his jean pockets, also relieved that Judai was alright. He was about to say something to the two, but then he heard the strange sound of a vehicle coming up the driveway at the front of the mansion. Raising a curious eyebrow, he turned around to see if he could catch a glimpse from where he currently stood. It was then that he heard Karen growl threateningly; he looked down at her, only to watch her start to crawl toward where the sound was coming from.

"K-Karen! What is it?" he called, following after her.

Judai and Johan let each other go, looking over to Jim and Karen, and then back to each other. Nodding simultaneously, they decided to go after them to see what was going on. Wildman, Bubbleman and Wroughtweiler also went along behind them, just in case.

Jim finally caught up to Karen once they had reached the bushes directly at the right corner of the huge, white shelter, picking her up and holding onto her so that she would not do anything to give away their position. Bending down in the bushes for cover, he watched with narrow oceanic eyes, trying to find out who was coming to the house.

A small white car rolled up the driveway, coming to a stop behind Ginka Andersen's dusty black pickup. Its clean outward appearance put the old Chevy to shame, but with how cramped it must have been inside of it, it did not look too comfortable to ride in. The driver's door swung open and a short, young woman stepped out of it. She had copper brown hair pulled up into a neat, tight bun atop her head and had very pale skin. Her narrow eyes were a dull blue color, giving her a bit of a suspicious and odd aura.

Closing the door to her car, she stepped out from behind the vehicle to walk toward the stairs that would lead her to the house. Black heels sunk into the pebbles of the driveway, but she still walked as if she did not notice. Her outfit was identical to the one Judai's mother had been wearing, which only meant one thing…

This woman was a new maid.

As Jim watched her begin to ascend the steps, his ear twitched when he heard the two other boys speak.

"What's up with her?" Johan asked, scratching his cheek some.

"She does not look very nice…" Judai mumbled, a nervous look coming over his face.

The blue spirit stared at the newcomer for a moment before snapping his fingers to indicate that he had an idea. The two boys who could see him looked up, only to earn a wink before Bubbleman glided quickly over to the woman, spinning around her to create a small circle of wind around her.

She stopped at the fifth step, feeling her skirt try to fly upward. Clamping her hands down over her knees, she pressed the front of her skirt down, only to have the back of it do what she did not want it to. With the blue and white clothing floating up in the air, she swung one of her arms behind her to try and hold it down like the front.

The boys started laughing at her attempts to conceal herself, and Bubbleman, who was only egged on by their amusement, flew up to the top of the twelve-step stairway and aimed his bubble shooters at her before letting several of them loose.

The woman let out a panicked scream as the bubbles spun around her body like the wind had a few seconds ago, popping and drenching her dry maids' uniform with water. Her hands came up to hide her face, trying to at least protect her makeup, but the bubbles that popped over her head let the water slid over her forehead and between her fingers to her face. Whatever makeup she had come to the house wearing was no longer of use to enhance her beauty, for when Bubbleman had finally stopped his entertaining onslaught, she pulled her hands away from her face to show that the black of her eyeliner and mascara had run down her face to give her a frightening, dark, clown-like look.

Proud of what he had done, Bubbleman went back to where the others were and joined in on their quiet laughter. A few minutes later when they had finally laughed it all off, they looked back to the woman, just in time to see her disappear into the house with one of the butlers, screaming something about magic and ghosts. This made them chuckle for a little while longer, but then Wildman cleared his throat loud enough to get all of their attention. The firm look in his eyes meant that what he was going to say was serious.

"**I have a bad feeling about her…"**

Johan and Judai nodded in agreement while Bubbleman merely shrugged his shoulders, bending down to pet Wroughtweiler's mechanical head. Though easy as she was to play a prank on, there was no telling if she would be someone they could call an ally or an enemy at this point.

"Ju-chan! Ju-chan!!" called a feminine voice from the front door.

The blue-clad spirit readied his bubble shooters again, overly cautious that someone in the house had placed the blame on him _again_. The brunette, however, stopped him by waving his hand in a motion that clearly said _'don't do it.'_ A few seconds later, he stepped out from the bushes and ran out into the open.

"I am here, Kaa-san!"

Johan sighed in relief, looking over his shoulder in time to watch all of the spirits vanish. He took this as his own cue to make himself known, so he pushed through the leaves and mini-branches of the bushes in order to come up to his best friend's side.

Seikou Yuki hopped down the steps at the front, still dressed in her light blue and white maid's outfit. Her orange hair swayed for a moment before settling to a stop when she approached her small son, bending down in front of him and smiling.

"Would you like to go to shopping with me for a little while? We'll be back before you know it!" she asked cheerily, trying to convince him to say yes.

Judai made an unsure look, turning his chocolate brown eyes to Johan's equally puzzled emerald ones before looking back to his mother, "Can Jo-kun come with us?"

Her smile weakened slightly, "I'm sorry… Jo-kun's kaa-sama would rather he stay here."

He closed his eyes, letting his head fall a little so that his chin met with his neck. What should he do? On one hand, he really wanted to go shopping with his mother because she usually bought him something fun to play with, but he would have to spend that much time away from Johan. Biting his lip and tightening his eyes shut, he felt a small hand place itself over his shoulder. Snapping to his right, he stared into bright green eyes with confusion and curiosity.

The blunette smiled gently at him, "It's okay; you can go if you want to! I'm not going anywhere, so I'll be waiting for you right here when you come back."

"A-are you sure…?" he asked, still questioning whether or not he should stay or go.

"Mm-hm!" Johan nodded in response, taking his hand away from his friend and walking over to the farthest support beam to the right of the house, which happened to be beside the very bush Jim was currently hidden in, "I'll be here!"

Seikou giggled at how sweet the little Andersen boy was around her own little one before catching a glimpse of Judai's own little smile. Her left hand reached forward and smoothly took his little right one into it, standing up straight and using her vacant hand to wave satisfyingly at Johan. The little brunette used his empty left hand to wave to his best friend, his eyes looking back over his shoulder until Johan was nothing but an ant in his line of sight. It would be a bit of a long walk to the maids' parking lot, but from there, the shopping center would await their arrival.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Judai Yuki would laugh aloud as he darted all over the supermarket, eyes whizzing in every direction to see what was there. The forest green-colored walls were filled with white shelves that held many interesting products, some of which his mother had told him he would have to wait until he was older to know what they were. A wide, excited smile was on his face as he finally came to a stop by the Trading Card isle, looking around until he finally saw what he was looking for.

"Heat-san!" he called, bouncing up and down on his heels.

A spirit faded into existence before him and bent down to his level. This ghost's outfit consisted of the colors orange, yellow and white mixed together with a few symbols of fire painted over its armor. A funny-looking helmet of sorts covered its head, looking like the tip of an orange torpedo, but with a pair of orange bat wings on either side of it.

"**Welcome back, Ju-chan! It's been a while!"** it spoke through an imaginary mouth, green eyes shining to show its happiness.

"Mm-hm! My kaa-san brought me here again, but I came to find you right away!" Judai explained, obviously glad to see another of his spirit friends again.

Heat picked up his large white hand, shaking his index finger at the young one, **"That's never a good idea… It's always nice to see you and all, but your kaa-san must get worried about where you are! You should go back to her right now."**

"Aww… Why?"

"**Who knows? There might be something good around here that'll catch your attention."** Heat laughed before waving and disappearing again.

The small brunette tilted his head in confusion; what did he mean? Shrugging, he turned around and started running down the isles and trying to find his mother again. His head spun from both directions so fast that by the time he realized that something was in _front_ of him, he had already run into it. His head bounced against a glass case in the jewelry department, the power from the hit pushing him back onto the tile floor. His elbows hit the ground, aching feelings developing there. His head, however, was where the serious pounding of pain began to bother him.

"O-oww…" he mumbled, picking up his hands and gingerly placing his fingers over the slowly rising bump over his head.

Droplets of tears formed at the sides of his eyes as the pain got worse; chocolate hues disappeared behind his eyelids as he tried to stop himself from crying. He did not want to cry in public… not without his mother around. He hiccupped meekly, doing his best to hold off his tears and the lump that was materializing in his throat.

"Oh, Ju-chan… What am I going to do with you?"

He immediately looked up, his eyes open to look into the caring golden brown ones watching him. He closed his eyes again, tears spilling over his cheeks as he crawled into his mother's open arms and threw his short arms around her neck. Judai buried his face into her shoulder, keeping his whimpers silent as he tried to suppress the pain.

Seikou Yuki wrapped her arms around his small body and placed her gentle right hand over the spot on his head where he had bumped himself. He winced for a moment, but she ran her fingers over it delicately and soothingly. After a few moments, his quiet whines subsided and he merely sniffled weakly. Picking up his head, he looked up at her again, his shiny cheeks stained a faint red color. All the woman could do was smile comfortingly before getting back up and holding onto his hand.

"Come on, Judai… Let's go see what pretty things they have in this department." She said, tugging him along as he followed beside her.

As the pain in his head gradually went away, his eyes scanned through the glass cases that they passed, copying his mother's actions. It seemed as though she were looking for something, but having a hard time finding it. Judai, however, was merely looking at all of the pretty stones and glossy chains.

They had already walked around the radius of the circular jewelry department when Judai's feet suddenly stopped moving. Seikou, feeling a resistance on her left hand, also came to a halt and turned her head to gaze down at her son. The little brunette let go of her hand in favor of pressing his face and the palms of his hands against the glass case in front of him. A wide smile spread over his lips as he stared into it.

The orange-haired woman took a step forward and stared down into the case, noticing exactly what her little boy was looking at. It was a crystal-shaped jewel of a beautiful ruby red color that hung off of a clean, shiny silver chain. Her gold eyes slid to the price next to the pretty little necklace and then lit up. Her face mirrored Judai's expression for a moment when she looked back up and motioned for one of the clerks behind the case to approach them.

"Excuse me! Excuse me, I'd like to buy this necklace!" she called, pointing down at the piece of jewelry in the box.

Judai smiled brilliantly, keeping his excitement bottled up inside of him; he remembered how his mother and some of the other maids at the Andersen mansion always told him not to let his overexcitement show in public.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am; what was it that you wanted?" a voice asked.

The young brunette moved his gaze from the necklace to look up at the one who had just come up to them, but was greeted by a familiar face.

_Lady Heat!_ He thought, holding back a happy gasp.

Behind the blonde-haired woman who wore the supermarket's uniform stood another spirit who accompanied his friend Heat back in the Trading Card isle. Her outfit and armor very much resembled the other spirit's style and color scheme, but unlike the other, her feminine face was visible. She smiled and nodded at him approvingly before winking and hopping into the air, disappearing without a trace.

_Was this what Heat meant?_ Judai asked himself as he watched the lady behind the counter take his mother's money and put the necklace into a bag. Seikou took the bag and nodded her thanks before taking her son's hand and walking off.

Once they left the jewelry department and entered the grocery area, she stopped and bent down in front of Judai, holding the bag out to him, "So, you really liked this necklace, huh, Ju-chan? What, may I ask, are you going to do with it when I give it to you?"

Judai's excitement simmered down as he grinned calmly at her, "When I saw it back there, I thought of Jo-kun. I want to give it to him as a gift!"

Seikou Yuki giggled, placing the folded-up paper bag into her little boy's small hands, "Good answer… Now, you just wait for the perfect moment to give it to him, okay? I don't want to know that you gave it to him right when we get back!"

"Okay!"

"With that settled, let's go find some ingredients to make us some food when we get back…" she said, pulling him along again.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

By the time they got back to the Andersen mansion, it was already about seven o'clock PM. Judai, who realized how late it had gotten, ran ahead of his mother and hoped with all of his heart that his best friend was still waiting for him. He was greeted by the sight of Johan sitting down on the ground, leaning back against the pillar they had left him at. Ruby Carbuncle was curled up into a ball and napping in his lap, his hand petting over its back gently.

"Jo-kun!!" he called, running as fast as his short legs would allow him to.

Teal blue hair swished upward as his face looked up, emerald green eyes sparkled as a smile came over him. Picking up the sleeping Crystal Beast in his arms, Johan Andersen got up to his feet and ran forth to meet up with his best friend.

"Ju-chan!"

From the loud volume of his yell, Ruby woke up, yawning before floating upward and vanishing. The two boys, upon meeting, tackled each other from their momentum. It was Judai who managed to fall over and make the two of them fall to the ground, Johan beneath him. They laughed, trying to see who could top who the longest. A small wrestling match started up, in which Johan managed to push Judai off to his side and they both tried to get on top of one another.

"Hey, you two!! It's getting late and I'm sure dinner's almost ready for you, Jo-kun." Seikou Yuki pointed out as she stopped behind the two of them, her arms folded with many, large plastic bags hanging at her elbows.

The blunette grinned toothily before nodding, calming down to get up to his feet and pull Judai up with him, "I guess you're right… I'll see you tomorrow, then, Ju-chan!"

Judai pouted, nodding, "Okay…"

Johan noticed his best friend's sadness, picking up his right hand and placing it over Judai's large mop of orange and brown hair, ruffling it playfully while chuckling, "It's alright, isn't it? We spent the day together and we got my onii-san back! Tomorrow will be extra fun, so don't worry!"

Having been reassured, the brunette nodded enthusiastically and smiled bright enough to illuminate the entire front porch, "Yes! Okay!"

The little Andersen boy turned around and scurried up the steps, entering the house quickly. Judai looked up at his mother, receiving a nod to go on. He followed the same path that the older boy had taken, but instead of rushing inside, he held the door open for his mother, allowing her to enter without much of a hassle with all the bags she held.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Ten o'clock PM… The sky had darkened significantly from how clear it had been all day. Black clouds were crowded together, concealing all shining moonlight from the world below. Pitch darkness outside gave off an ominous feeling to those who were observant enough… to those who could feel the abnormality of the night… to those could _sense_ the spirits that lived there.

"Good night, Ju-chan!" called Seikou Yuki, picking up a hand to push a stray strand of orange hair behind her ear as she stood in the doorway.

Judai currently sat on his small-sized bed, wearing an over-sized black T-shirt and his favorite red boxers with little white stars all over them. From where he sat in the middle of the white blankets, he looked like he was drowning in a huge black blob. The expression on his face made him look like a lost puppy.

"Kaa-san… I-I am scared… Do not leave me yet…" he whispered _just_ loud enough for her to hear, pulling his legs up under the black T-shirt and wrapping his arms around himself.

"There's nothing to be afraid of, _Itoshigo*_…" she cooed, "Your angels are always here to protect you. Remember that."

With that said, she closed the door and left him alone in his room.

The young brunette sat there, his chocolate brown eyes peering at the closed white door through the dim air. A small nightlight was plugged into the wall beside his bed, lighting up a small portion of the right side of the room. His arms tightened around his legs as his head sunk further into his shirt.

"**Kuri, kuri?"**

He turned his head a little, seeing a floating ball of brown fur appear beside him. Little white angel wings flapped slightly at its back as its purple eyes watched him worriedly. He took a deep breath and sighed shakily.

"Hane Kuriboh… I am scared… Wh-what is happening…?"

Little green paws waved frantically as it flew closer to him, going through the shirt and burying itself between his chest and knees. The way its little body shook automatically told him that something _was_ going to happen.

The young boy picked up one of his hands and pulled it close to his chest so that he could pet the small fur ball, but that was when all light in the room suddenly went out. His eyes went wide; fear's cold hand wrapped its slender fingers around his warm heart, making his heart beat faster and faster as his fright gradually increased. He gulped quietly, slowly raising his gaze from down into the shirt to look around the room for what could have caused the light to turn off.

His eyes got used to the darkness almost right away with how scared he felt, but from what he could see, nothing was out of the ordinary. Nothing looked different; the light had just gone out. Taking a shaky breath, he repeated to himself that there was nothing there… Absolutely _nothing_ was there. Bubbleman was probably just trying to scare him, and any second now, he would pop out and yell _"Gotcha!!"_

Just when he started to believe this, a faint chuckle could be heard through the darkness. His calming heart rate picked back up, his fear shooting up higher than it had been before. Chocolate hues shot back up, looking straight forward to the door, only to see a small, sewn-up worm-like creature standing there. Twelve metallic legs wiggled on either side of it, but its upper six limbs seemed to have large knives attached to them. The nightlight flickered slightly, but it was enough to show the face of the odd creature.

Its pure indigo-colored body took a few steps closed as its faded, turquoise blue face flashed into visibility for a split second. Blood red eyes began to glow brightly as its frightening, too-wide mouth stretched into a creepy smile that showed all of its pointed white teeth. Even in the dark, the sharp ends of its knife-like limbs shined noticeably.

By now, Judai was frozen in place, unable to move from how frightened he was. The Marionette Mite's silent chuckling became louder the closer it got to him, but as his fear rose at an even level, it abruptly climbed to an unheard-of point when an unexpected maniacal laughter filled the room, echoing off of the walls.

He jumped backwards on the bed, waiting for his back to collide with the wall, but instead, feeling an odd, sickly squishiness behind him. His blood ran cold when he realized this, slowly raising his head to look up, only to look into the torn-up face of a fat, undead clown. Its eerie smile widened as it saw his obvious fright, another round of insane laughter ripping from its mouth.

He let out a cry as he tried to move away from the Crass Clown, falling off of the left side of the bed and trying to escape. He looked from left to right, seeing that the Crass Clown was guarding the window on the right side of his bed and the Marionette Mite was in front of the door. Gulping as he backed up into the wall, his eyes stared unblinkingly at the monsters. His heartbeat pounded in his ears as he tried to become one with the wall and just disappear; where were his angels? Where were Featherman and Burst Lady? Wildman and Bubbleman? Or even Wroughtweiler? His little Hane Kuriboh could not protect him… Whenever he felt fear, so did it. Whatever he was feeling, it felt, too; Hane Kuriboh would be of no help in this situation.

… What was he supposed to do?

The Marionette Mite's mouth opened, revealing several long tongues inside of it. This frightening sight made Judai stop moving and just stare as it gradually came closer to him. Finally, he was scared enough to _scream_.

"JO-KUN!!!!!!!!!"

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Teal blue hair poked out from beneath fluffy, light blue blankets, the body attached to that large bush of hair completely hidden beneath the covers. A faint sigh of content could be heard from them, but a scream ripped through the silence of the room.

"_JO-KUN!!!!!!!!!"_

Emerald green eyes snapped open as an arm instantly shoved the blankets away from his body. Johan Andersen sat up on his queen-sized bed, staring over to the door just in time to see a spirit appear.

A man clothed in a blue full-body suit and shiny yellow armor materialized in the seven-year-old's room, his face hidden behind a light blue and yellow helmet. He ran up to the young one's side and spoke in a voice of echoes that only spirits had.

"**Ju-chan is in trouble. The Dark spirits have gotten to him."**

"What!? Why haven't any of the others gone to help him??" Johan questioned, jumping out of bed and quickly airing out his white T-shirt and light blue pajama pants.

"**We've been trying! The Light inside of his room has been extinguished and we can't enter without help from the Living."** Sparkman held out his hand to the blunette, **"I will lend you my power in order to save him… There's no telling what the Dark ones really want with him."**

Johan nodded, easily fitting his smaller hand into the spirit's hand. A glow emanated from their hands until Sparkman disappeared completely. Feeling as though nothing happened, the blunette sped out of his huge room, his bare feet thumping down the wooden flooring of the sleeping corridors until he jumped over the ledge of one stair railing. Thankfully, he only jumped about a yard and a half down, so he landed on his feet well enough to start running again.

His ears twitched as the sounds of whimpering and screaming reached him; why could no one else hear this?! Why had no one else gotten out of bed? The blunette pushed these questions off to the side of his mind as he forced the door open, watching as the air inside of Judai's room became a thick cloud of dark spirits. The volume of the entire room was filled with several distorted faces of evil smiles, sorrow, anger and rage. His own emerald hues went wide as terror struck him; what was going _on_!?

Another cry was audible enough to snap him out of his frightened state of awe, reminding him why he was there in the first place. Peering through the thick black fog, he saw Judai huddled against the wall with his face hidden in his pulled-up knees, his arms covering over the back of his head and neck. A handful of Dark spirits had surrounded him and were inching closer every second.

Swallowing his obvious horror, he could feel the power that Sparkman had temporarily given to him begin to build up in the hand that he had shook with him earlier. Looking down to it, he could see small particles of light coming together at the palm of his hand until they formed a small sphere of light, and when he pulled his elbow back, getting ready to throw this ball, it began to crackle with electricity. Several zigzagging lines of lightning hissed and fizzed as they grew bigger and bigger, until Johan knew it was ready.

His eyes focused on the darkness within the room, and the goal to save his best friend filled his heart, as he pulled his hand back and threw it forward, making the ball of electricity fly into the center of the room and then flash into an explosion of Light.

The screams of the Dark ones filled the area, going through his head and giving him a huge headache. His free hand flew to his forehead as he tried to resist the pain inside of him; he kept telling himself _"For Ju-chan!"_

A few seconds later, all was back to normal. The nightlight by Judai's bed flickered back to life until it stayed on for good. Johan took a few steps forward into the room, his vision blurring slightly until he finally just fell to his hands and knees. Sparkman appeared beside him, placing a hand over the blunette's shoulder.

"**You did it… You did good, Kid."**

When the seven-year-old looked up to him, there was nothing there. His emerald eyes shifted to look over to his best friend, only to be greeted by a shaking sob. Biting his lip, he managed to crawl over to the brunette, sitting on his knees in front of him.

"Ju-chan…" he cooed softly, his hands touching the other's shoulders for a split-second.

From the feel of the other's fingers, Judai jumped, his head looking up quickly. It was then that Johan realized just how bad a condition the other had been in this whole time. Normally cheerful chocolate brown eyes were filled with fright, black pupils were hardly visible with their small size.

The blunette made a concerned look before pressing forward to wrap his arms completely around the other's neck, bringing him close so that he hugged him, "Ju-chan… I'm sorry… I didn't get here sooner."

"J-Jo-kun…" Judai whimpered, his wide eyes eliciting tears from their sides.

The clear liquid spilled over the sides of his face, ridding him of his fear. His eyes slowly went back to normal, eyelids drooping until his eyes closed altogether. Moving his knees downward so that he sat on them the same way Johan was, he moved closer so that his forehead leaned onto the other's left shoulder.

"I… I was… so _scared_, I…" he stuttered until he looked up into the other's caring face, "I thought I was going to _die_!"

Johan's arms tightened around him, pulling Judai as close as possible. Emerald hues fell closed as his chin met with Judai's shoulder, turning his head toward the other's ear so he could whisper.

"Ju-chan… I promise you that I will always protect. When the angels can't help, I will _always_ be there for you."

The brunette could feel his once pale skin taking color back, but his cheeks reddened significantly as a warm feeling swelled in his chest. A smile spread over his face as he rubbed his cheek into the side of his best friend's neck.

"Thank you… Jo-kun…"

Johan let go of him for a moment, getting up to his feet and holding his hand out to him. Judai blinked in confusion, but took it anyway, pulling himself up. The blunette smiled, pulling him along with him, out of the room.

"A-ahm… Where are…?"

The older boy interrupted him, knowing exactly what he was going to say, "We're going to my room, where no Dark spirits can get to you without my knowing. From now on, you and I are going to be together at night. I won't let anything bad happen to you ever again!"

He made a determined look, nodding to himself as he thought, _I never want to see him hurt or scared like that again…_

Judai could feel his cheeks heat up again, but it made him feel so loved with how his best friend felt that he had to protect him. He made him smile and feel all warm and fuzzy inside; he wanted to feel like this always… and according to what Johan said, he may very well feel this way forever. A small chuckle escaped him as they finally entered the huge room that Jinsei Kisaki Andersen had given specially to her son.

The older boy got into the bed again, but when he noticed Judai just standing there at the side of the mattress, he patted the empty side of the bed next to him, "C'mon, it's okay! Kaa-sama doesn't normally come in here to wake me up, anyway."

The brunette nodded hesitantly, crawling under the covers and laying his head down on the long, fluffy pillow that his best friend was sharing with him. He smiled sleepily when he heard Johan's yawn.

"_Oyasumi_… Jo-kun…" he whispered, closing his eyes calmly

"Oyasuminasai, Ju-chan…"

* * *

Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:

* _Itoshigo_ is Japanese for _Beloved Dear Child_. Or at least... according to where I found the word. XD

Well, that's it for this Not-Chapter! The next one will start up the REAL big conflict! Can you guess who's involved? XD!

Considering that you're now reading my nonsense at the bottom of the page, take the time to Review! Tell me what you thought! What you liked or didn't like... or what you liked! -hinthint- XD!

ANYWAY, I've gotta go call my boyfriend back now...

OH!! Here's a little "About the Author!" I live SOUTH Texas, as in a few miles away from the border to Mexico. My boyfriend lives here, too, but from Thanksgiving, he went WAAAAY up north to AUSTIN, TEXAS! Yes, People, THE CAPITAL!

My Thanksgiving sucked, but him leaving made it _worse_! D:

... enough ranting from me. Haha, see you in the Prologue.


	3. Prologue : Disconnection

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** does not own _Yu-Gi-Oh! GX_ or any of the characters in thsi fic that you recognize from the show. She does, however, own a handful of random maids & butlers, Seikou Yuki, Jinsei Kisaki Andersen, and Aurelia DeMont.

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

HOLY OLD LADY, THIS TOOK FOREVER TO FINISH WRITING! X_X

I started writing this Not-Chapter November the 29th, and I finished it TODAY on December 20th. X_X

IT TOOK FOREVER! If I wasn't busy doing something for school, I was doing chores... and if I wasn't doing chores, I was sleeping... ZOMFG, it was so hard actually finding time to write this during the last two weeks of school before Winter Break!

BUT THE BREAK HAS STARTED! You can bet that I'll be writing as much as I can before school starts up again! It's so much fun to write this fic and the ideas for _this_ particular fic just keep rolling into my head. I know that this fic is starting off with a lot of little stuff, but bear with me for now, okay? It'll get a lot better after a handful more of Not-Chapters. XD

Now, _please_... Go and and read the fruits of my hard labor. XD

* * *

**: ****Prologue**** : **Disconnection – _Our Broken Bond_

It seemed as though the weather of the previous night was affecting the morning sky. Several fluffy white clouds floated by, occasionally blocking the sun's warm rays of light from brightening the mostly-empty countryside. The wind had also picked up, taking on a biting chill and harsher speed. All windows to the huge, white Andersen mansion were closed shut, but as the clock struck 7:05 AM, one of the maids' windows to the farthest left side of the house was pulled open. The white curtains that decorated the small, light blue-painted bedroom swayed recklessly as the wind blew in; the woman who opened this window did not seem to notice or care about the weather, for some reason.

Aurelia DeMont was, what everyone else in the mansion thought to be, a new maid hired to be at Jinsei Kisaki Andersen's side for whatever she needed. The twenty-five-year-old woman took a few steps away from the window and looked at herself in the mirror. The cool rush of wind had blown her copper brown hair out of place, but it did not matter. If anything, it made her hair look better than it had before when she had just woken up. Dull blue eyes blinked at her reflection; one would think that these eyes could somehow regain a sparkle of youth and come right to life once she was fully awake, but… not a soul had seen it since she had gotten there.

Taking a deep breath, she sat down in the chair that stood before the dresser, continually staring at herself in the mirror as her hands moved to grab at a brush and two rubber bands. Memories flooded into her head of why she had even taken this job of being a wealthy woman's slave dog, making her frown deeply.

"_We need you to infiltrate the Andersen home and tear the family apart from the inside."_ Echoed a male voice in her head, _"It's all their fault that my family was reduced to this."_

Aurelia rolled her eyes once her hair was brushed into its normal, curly state. Pulling half of her hair upward, she tied it into a high ponytail, and then did the same with the other, having two curly streams of elbow-length hair flow down to her shoulders.

_I took this job to get paid… Seiken Garam only offered to double it if I decided to go along with his plan…_ She thought to herself as she got up from the chair and started to change into her white and light blue maid uniform.

According to what she had heard from her hidden employer, the Andersen family had gotten rich off of Thomas "Tomu" Andersen getting a big job as the head of a successful gaming company. With the youth of today obsessed with video games, his childish mind came up with many ideas to come out with lots of thriving products that just kept the money rolling in. Seiken Garam was the president of the Garam Gaming Company and a small financial business, but his hatred toward the Andersens surfaced from how triumphant they were in their business. The games that Garam Co. came out with were absolute duds, and only a few were ever actually popular for a few weeks at a time.

Because of how unsuccessful Seiken was, his wife divorced him a few years ago and left him with nothing but their adopted son, Amon. Without enough money to support all of their family, it broke apart and near-killed him. This saddened man, looking for someone to blame, turned to a rival gaming company and blamed all of his troubles on them.

… Or at least, that was how Aurelia saw it.

The copper-haired woman approached the door, staring at the doorknob for a moment before taking a deep breath. It was her first day on the job… both for the Lady Andersen _and_ for Mr. Garam. How would she pull off doing her job to do everything her current boss told her to, but still ruin her family ties?

Well, there was a _reason_ Seiken Garam had chosen her for the job…

A small smirk formed over her pale lips as she turned the handle and exited the room.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

"**Rubi, rubi!"** Ruby Carbuncle squeaked, appearing in the huge, dim bedroom.

The thick white curtains were drawn over the two windows of the little Andersen boy's room, but one of the windows allowed a few thin rays of light to shine in. The curtain swayed gently for a few seconds before the right half of it flew upward abruptly.

"**Kuri, kuri!!"** piped Hane Kuriboh, appearing beneath the curtains and shaking itself clear of them.

The long pieces of cloth fell back into place, but had already been pushed open to the point that they no longer covered over the window like they had a moment ago. With light now illuminating the room, a certain teal blue-haired rich boy stirred. Eyes tightened together for a moment before he tried to reach his arms up to stretch, but a resistance kept them from moving. His eyes opened a little, still slightly glued shut. Blinking away his sleepiness, he began to remember what had taken place the night before.

Looking down, he found that his best friend had cuddled up to him some time in the night, his head of brown and orange hair tucked beneath his chin as his cheek leaned against his neck. Johan Andersen smiled at this, tightened his hold around the younger boy since he had slept with his arms encircling the other's waist.

This movement caused the brunette to wake up, his mouth opening up wide to yawn. Blinking for a moment, he did not seem aware of his surroundings for a second until he looked up and saw his best friend. Chocolate brown eyes went wide as he instantly backed up from the older boy, sitting up and glancing in all directions.

"J-Ju-chan, what's wrong?" Johan asked, sitting up quickly and watching his friend's frantic scan of the room.

Judai stopped what he was doing and turned to look at him, "Jo-kun… y-your kaa-sama…"

The undertone of fear in his voice made the blunette understand right away, but all it did was make him smile, "She doesn't come to wake me up, so don't worry! She usually just sends in one of the maids to get me."

Judai Yuki sighed in deep relief, exhaling to the point of falling back down onto the bed, "Th-that is good… I got scared for a minute there."

The older boy chuckled, hopping over to his friend and landing on top of him, "Haha, _now_ you should be scared! I just pinned ya!"

"No way!!" the brunette cried, pushing the other off to the side of the bed and rolling over on top of him without much difficulty. Johan struggled to get back on top, but Judai had his wrists pinned at either side of him and his forelegs held down his knees, "Now look who is pinned!"

He stuck out his tongue at him, but Johan merely mirrored this action and blew raspberries at him before mumbling, "I'm _gonna_ get you one of these days…"

"Keep dreaming, Jo-kun! Haha!!"

_**Creeeeeak!**_

The two boys froze when they heard the door creak open; it was not that they were embarrassed about the position they were in; _oh_ no, they were much too young to realize that… but they were worried because Judai was not supposed to be there in the first place.

Gulping, Judai turned his head to look over his right shoulder as Johan craned his neck to the side so that they could both see who was currently standing in the doorway. Their eyes went wide at who they saw; it was that new maid that showed up the previous day! The look on her face did not look very friendly, either.

"Jo-sama, I was told to come wake you up and bring you out for breakfast… but I wasn't told that you would have a… _friend_ in here with you." The woman spoke with a nonchalant tone, her dull blue eyes staring directly through them both, "I can only guess that this is Judai… You two are inseparable, aren't you?"

While she had been speaking, the brunette had crawled off of his best friend and sat where he had been earlier. Johan sat up beside him, shaking his head a bit to make the flat, teal blue spikes behind his head bounce back into shape. Judai tilted his head to the side cutely, blinking at her curiously.

"In… sep… pairable?" he tried to repeat her last word, meaning that he did not know what it meant and that he wanted a definition.

Johan chuckled, "No, Ju-chan! She said _inseparable_! It means that we're always together and hardly ever stay away from each other."

"Oh! Yes, that is us!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up into the air excitedly, "Especially after what happened last night!"

The maid froze visibly upon hearing what the six-year-old said, "L-last night…?"

"Mm-hm! Jo-kun—" he started to say, but then Johan jumped onto his back and covered his mouth with his right hand.

"Ahahah… N-nothing happened, we just saw something really weird, that's all… It was really dark last night, so we were probably just seeing things." He laughed nervously as he came up with a story off the top of his head.

"O… kay…" the woman stared at them suspiciously for a moment before shrugging, "It really doesn't concern me… so just hurry up and get ready; your kaa-sama wants you to eat breakfast with her."

Judai looked to his best friend with a pout, his eyes screaming _"Can I come, too?"_ Johan, however, shook his head with a pleasant smile.

"Sorry, Ju-chan… You know how Kaa-sama is; I'll see you in the backyard later, though, okay?" He asked, but then Ruby Carbuncle floated over to sit on his shoulder, rubbing against his cheek, "Haha, you, too, Ruby…"

The younger boy stuck his tongue out as he hopped off of the bed, the flying fur ball landing on top of his already furry head, "At least I have Hane Kuriboh to keep me company, huh, Buddy?"

"**Kuri, kuri!"** Hane Kuriboh squeaked, ruffling his hair with its little green paws.

The maid blinked, staring at the top of the little brunette's head; his hair was moving on its own… There was no breeze in the room, so how…? She had simply thought that they were talking to themselves, but could it be that they were talking to ghosts? Rolling her eyes, she picked up a hand and held it to her temple; she was already getting a headache.

This job was already starting to look like a waste of time to her.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

An hour had passed since the two best friends parted ways in order to eat breakfast with their mothers. Although the weather had not lightened so much from earlier that morning, Johan Andersen still made his way out to the backyard and into the forest clearing that served as his and Judai's special place. When he got there, he was pleasantly surprised when he noticed that the ruthless wind that had been trying to force him back into the house was no longer blowing… at least, not in the clearing. Emerald eyes scanned his surroundings, not even seeing a blade of grass sway from the slightest breeze. He blinked, seeing a familiar, green-clad spirit appear to the right side of the small bench.

"Featherman… are you…?"

Featherman nodded his green-helmeted head, **"There's an ominous feeling in the air… almost as bad as last night. I'm able to control the wind, so I've stopped it so that you and Ju-chan won't get hurt out here."**

The little blunette smiled gratefully, bowing his thanks to the transparent hero before approaching the bench and plopping down onto it. With the palms of his hands laid down flat against the smooth stone of the bench, he leaned back slightly and stared straight on ahead of him, which was where he knew Judai would show up from.

In that small, secluded place, it was as if time had stopped. With no wind to blow and the sun shaded from shining down on him, the only things that even told Johan that time continued to go on were the clouds that filled the sky and flocked in the same direction. All he knew was that he had been sitting there for a very long time, silent, even though Featherman was there to keep him company.

About a half hour later, a rustling sound came from the bushes that he had been staring at for the longest time. His bored eyes lit up and his ears twitched in anticipation for a few seconds, and then his brown- and orange-haired best friend dashed through the overgrown plants, only to trip over a loose root and fall face-first into the still grass. Johan instantly jumped to his feet, going to the other's side quickly and bending down to help him get back up to his knees.

"Ju-chan, _daijoubu desuka_?" he asked with concern, picking up his left hand to lightly dust a few grains of dirt from his cheeks.

Judai Yuki blushed embarrassedly, laughing it off as he nodded, "_Hai, hai_! I am fine, but I am really sorry for being late… Kaa-san never made enough food, so after I finished eating everything, she had to go back and make some more."

Johan smirked as he poked the younger boy's barely-noticeable stomach, "It's really funny how you can eat so much and still stay so skinny… My kaa-sama won't let me have more than two servings of anything, so I don't think she'll _ever_ let me eat everything the cooks make and then tell them to make more."

"How can you not be hungry after just two servings?" the brunette asked, tilting his head to the side some before his chocolate brown eyes fell to the other's stomach, "… you are way too skinny… I can see your bones."

An amused laughter ripped itself from the older boy's mouth, "That's not bone, Ju-chan; that's _muscle_! Kaa-sama makes me exercise, remember? You should try it some time, too! Maybe you wouldn't have that mini-blob at the pit of your stomach, even if it only lasts for a little while."

A faint growling sound broke through their conversation and Johan immediately looked to Judai's stomach, only to stare in disbelief. Judai coughed, his blush darkening significantly. The other boy looked back up to his face, picking up his right hand to point his index finger down at his stomach.

"Was that… what I think it was…?"

The groaning sound occurred again, and the blunette shot the arm he had been holding up out so that his palm laid against the other's now-completely flattened stomach. He felt a soft vibration from the younger one's tummy, making him stare at his friend with wide eyes that were a little under a foot away from the self-conscious brunette's chocolate ones.

"You're _still_ hungry?!"

"_Gomen nasai_!!" Judai exclaimed at the top of his lungs, letting his head drop in shame, "It is not _my_ fault I am always hungry…"

Johan sighed in defeat, shaking his head with an incredulous smile on his face as he walked back to the bench. Bending over it, he pulled out a small paper bag from behind it. He had actually brought it there with him just in case he got hungry while playing with his best friend, but right now, it seemed as though the other needed it more.

The other scurried up beside him, blinking as the blunette held the bag out to him. Judai took the bag in one hand and looked to the older boy in confusion.

"What is this?"

"Just open it."

Judai shrugged, pulling open the creased edge of the bag and peeking inside of it. His eyes brightened in a split second as a short gasp escaped him, "There is toast in here!!"

Johan could not help laughing at how comical the other was; every time he brought along toast for the other, he would open the bag and say the same thing. He could have sworn that every time he heard it, though, it sounded even cuter.

The younger boy pulled out the piece of buttered toast and bit into it, allowing it to hang out of his mouth as he crumpled up the brown paper bag. Johan saw this as his chance and stepped forward, grabbing the bottom of the bread and pulling it away. Judai was surprised by this action, quickly swallowing the small piece he had held in his mouth before pouting childishly.

"Jo~kun!!" he cried, fake tears swelling at the sides of his eyes.

Even though the older boy had seen this trick before, he always, _always_ fell for it. He tried to hold in the feeling of how cute the other looked, making himself look like he was trying to hold back laughter. Finally, he burst out laughing, giving it back by holding it near his mouth again. Judai smiled triumphantly, opening his mouth and biting down into the bread again as Johan took his hand away.

After gulping down another piece of bread, Judai said happily, "You're the best, Jo-kun!"

Johan smiled gently as he watched his best friend chow down on the toast, feeling very proud of himself. No one could ever make him feel happy like Judai could. Emerald eyes were softly watching as his hands slipped into the pockets of his clean black pants.

Once the younger boy was completely done with the piece of food, he giggled before turning on Johan and tackling him to the ground, giving him a big hug, "_Arigotou gozaimasu_!!"

The two collapsed onto the grass, laughing hysterically for absolutely no reason at all. Johan reached up his arms so that he could try to wrestle Judai onto the ground instead of him, but because of how hard he was laughing, his strength was sapped away easily. Judai kept him down for another minute or so before moving off and sitting on his legs, his arms held around his stomach.

"Ahahahaa… My stomach hurts!"

Johan started to calm down, his laughter becoming mild chuckles as he sat up straight, "So does mine!"

The brunette took a deep breath, completely bringing his laughter to a halt, as well. His closed brown eyes reopened to see warm emerald eyes watching him. A small, embarrassed blush painted his cheeks as he suddenly remembered what he and his mother had bought the day before. Clearing his throat, he stuck his hand into the right pocket of his blue pants, feeling the thin piece of jewelry sitting there.

The blunette blinked at how quiet the other had become, bending forward a little to look up at his best friend's face, "Ju-chan? Is anything wrong?"

Judai quickly shook his head, laughing nervously, "N-no! Of course not!"

"You're acting funny…" Johan mumbled suspiciously, his eyebrows coming together, "What do you have in your pocket?"

"W-well…" the younger boy began, wondering if now was _'the right time'_ that his mother had been telling him about earlier that day, "You remember how I went with my mom to the market yesterday?"

Johan nodded, watching as the other boy continued speaking, "You see… I found this really pretty thing that… reminded me of you, so… here!"

Judai yanked the necklace out of his pocket and held it out to the older boy, his eyes clamped shut as his head faced downward slightly. His blush had darkened significantly and the hand which held the shiny, silver chain of the jewelry was shaking.

The blunette gasped at the sight of the gift, his emerald eyes sparkling brilliantly as he studied it. The jewel which hung off of the chain was of a clear, see-through, ruby crystal. His mouth formed an amazed smile as an excited feeling swelled inside of his heart. Picking up his right hand, he reached forward and wrapped his fingers around the other boy's fist.

Judai's eyes snapped open as he looked up at the other, seeing how happy he had made him, "J-Jo-kun?"

"_Arigotou_, Ju-chan…" he thanked him, his eyes filled with an emotion that neither of them yet understood, but Judai was still glad to see it.

He smiled, nodding as he gently placed the necklace into the other's awaiting hand. Johan pulled the two sides of the open chain over the front of his neck and clipped the two ends together behind his head, allowing the red jewel to hang _just_ above the lavender lining of his white, open-collared, long-sleeved shirt. Staring at it for another few seconds, he looked back up to the brunette and, this time, tackled _him_ to the ground so that _he_ was on the bottom, instead.

The two laughed again, but not as hard as the first time. Judai just lay there, staring up at his best friend with a bright smile. Johan returned that smile whole-heartedly before leaning down and quickly pecking his lips against the other's cheek gently.

Judai's chocolate hues widened in surprise, staring up into calm, blissful emerald ones. His cheeks reddened, but he could feel a wide, goofy smile curl over his face.

"You're welcome!"

Little did the two young boys know was that they had been watched the entire time. Two dull blue eyes shined mischievously from behind a bush before a rustle occurred, going unnoticed by the boys, and whatever had been there was gone.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

The room was very quiet… One could possibly drop a pin and hear it _**clink**_ against the tile flooring. The spacious room of ivory walls was adorned with golden decorations, the only thing standing out was the royal blue of the bedspread. To the furthest corner of the room was a large window with see-through sapphire blue curtains lined with gold. Sitting to the windowsill was the ill lady of the house, Jinsei Kisaki Andersen. Her legs were held together, placed off to her right side as she sat there. Oceanic eyes stared off into the distance behind their backyard, knowing that she would not be able to see a thing inside of the forest from where she was.

A few minutes ago, she had noticed her very own maid escaping the forest to run back into the mansion. The woman wondered what the girl would tell her upon returning.

A few knocks could be heard from the outside of the door. Mrs. Andersen did not remove her gaze from the shaded sky outside as she called for whomever it was to enter. The sound of the door opening and closing was enough to finally compel her to turn and face the newcomer. Indigo blue hair swayed over her shoulders, nearly hiding the top part of her white under dress.

"Miss… DeMont, right?"

The maid that had entered the room was, indeed, the new maid that had only just joined the Andersen staff the day before. Aurelia DeMont bowed deeply to her boss, pulling herself back up into a straight position. When she did this, her two curly, copper brown ponytails bounced back into placed at her shoulders. Dull blue eyes were open to watch the rich lady before her.

"Yes, Ma'am… Aurelia DeMont, at your service…"

Jinsei nodded approvingly, "I've already picked out my clothing for the day… I'll need for you to iron it. The iron is kept over there."

"Yes, Ma'am." Aurelia repeated, turning in the direction the lady had pointed her in.

She instantly pulled out the ironing board and plugged the iron in, walking over to Jinsei's huge blue bed to pick up the clothes she had chosen as the iron warmed up. Her eyes stared down at the clothing, finding the royal blue dress to look like it was made of velvet but was actually made of cotton. Shrugging, she carried the dress delicately over to the ironing board and placed it there, careful not to let the skirt hit the floor.

Jinsei watched the girl, noticing the dry and almost sad look in her blue eyes. Clearing her throat, she began to talk.

"Miss DeMont… was that _you_ I saw running out of the forest?"

Without missing a beat, the brunette nodded and replied nonchalantly, "Yes, it was."

"May I ask you why?"

Having finished ironing the top part of the dress, Aurelia moved it over so that she could iron the skirt, "I saw your son and his friend run off in there… Those two are quite the pair, aren't they? Always together…"

An exasperated groan came from the lady of the house as she slumped back against the side of the window, her eyes closed for the moment until she began to speak again, "And _that_ is the problem… My darling little Jo-kun is absolutely ob_sess_ed with staying by that scrappy little boy's side…"

"I've noticed… Imagine my surprise when I found them in the same bed this morning. And their position was… quite a compromising one."

The blunette immediately looked at the maid, "_Nani_?"

Aurelia's eyes looked upward for a moment before looking back to the skirt, "I'm sorry, I don't understand Japanese. You'll have to repeat that in _English_."

The girl had lied, but she did not really feel in the mood to speak or listen to another language besides her own native one. Her boss did not need to know the truth.

Jinsei huffed for a moment before repeating herself, "I asked you _'what_?_'_"

"Well, since they're just kids, I guess they were wrestling… It would explain why Judai was on top of Johan, since Johan doesn't seem to be as strong."

Jinsei sighed in relief, calming down enough to lean back against the wall again, "Aah…"

"… but what happened after that was just as odd."

"What was!?" she squeaked, sitting up bolt-straight as her hearing suddenly heightened.

"They were talking to thin air… It was weird." The brunette replied, picking up the dress from the ironing board and holding it up to look over her work.

"Oh, oh… They were talking to the spirits, again…"

"Spirits?" Aurelia made an amused look as she approached the paranoid lady, "You mean like ghosts? Come now, Lady… You don't really believe that, do you?"

"Of _course_, I do!!" she shouted, managing to startle the maid. When she noticed the other woman flinch slightly, she calmed herself down and looked away embarrassedly, "Sorry… I mean… I believe it because… Johan and Judai's fathers could both see the spirits, too. It's not hard to believe it when you hear grown men go on about them."

Aurelia, though surprised as she had been by Jinsei's sudden outburst, her eyes had not changed. All she did was shrug as she motioned for the woman to stand. When Jinsei stood up, she held her arms up above her head, and then Aurelia threw the dress over her, pulling it down over her body to make it go into place correctly. The rich woman turned around so that her back was to the maid. This was when the brunette took a hold of the blue ribbons behind the dress and started to tie them into a nice, long bow.

"… so, what did you see while you were in the forest?" Jinsei asked, her eyes staring off toward the opening to the woods that the boys usually came out from.

"Oh, well… _about_ that…"

The Andersen lady turned back around to face Aurelia when the bow was nice and tight, staring her hard, blue-green oceanic eyes into dull sky blue ones, "Yes…?"

Though most of the lady's other maids might have cringed or flinched under such a look, this maid was unfazed. All she did was shrug as she took a step back from her boss, giving herself some personal space.

"I got there just in time to see Judai tackle Johan to the ground. Normal, yes, I know. I guessed that they were going to wrestle again, but then they got quiet and stared at each other for a while and then…" she trailed off, looking away from the woman in front of her.

"And then!?" Jinsei asked in a high-pitched voice, dreading what the other girl would say.

Aurelia turned her eyes to look back at Jinsei as she finished, "Well… I saw Judai _kiss_ Johan… on the _lips_."

The blunette's eyes snapped open as wide as humanly possible upon hearing the news, stunning her in place before she backed up into the wall and used it to keep herself standing, "A-are you… _sure_ you saw _that_…?"

The brunette nodded casually, making it a completely believable story. She knew that she mutilated the actual story of what happened in the forest, but hey, this was more entertaining. She kept her amused smirk mental so that she would not make the woman suspicious of what she said. To be truthful, though, she did not think that this lady would catch her smirk or even maniacal laughter if she did either aloud. She was _that_ out of it.

"Miss DeMont… Go find Seikou Yuki and bring her here. I… I'd like to have a word with her…" Jinsei stuttered, still trying to make sense of the other's words.

"Yes, Ma'am… and please, call me Aurelia."

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Seikou Yuki took a deep breath as she finally stood in front of her mistress's private quarters; what on earth could she want to see her for?

_It probably involves Judai…_ She thought, chuckling grimly. It always did, after all. It made her wonder, time and again, if having fun was a crime in the Andersen household.

Shrugging to herself, she knocked on the door, hearing a faint _"come in"_ on the other side. Turning the knob, she entered the room and closed the door behind her. Her orange hair swayed as she turned quickly to face the woman sitting in a fine wooden chair, a royal blue cushion separating her rear end from the hard, solid surface of the seat.

Seikou bent down into a low bow, mumbling loudly, "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes… yes, I did." Jinsei Kisaki Andersen replied, her oceanic eyes staring indifferently at the maid, "It's about your rat…"

"You mean my _son_." She corrected, standing back up straight and restraining herself from barking at the other for calling her child a _rat_.

"Whatever… Due to news brought to me from an eyewitness to an event I will _not_ tolerate, I'm giving you an order to send that boy to a private school… one that he can _live_ and _stay_ at, away from this house."

The orange-haired woman raised an eyebrow, "You can't be serious…"

"But I am! I've made arrangements for a bus to arrive here from Saint Fordé's Catholic Academy for Boys at around four o'clock PM. Your rat has until three-thirty to finish packing and be ready." Jinsei explained, eyes narrowing dangerously at the other.

Seikou's golden honey eyes went wide; she was not kidding, "B-but I can't afford a place like Saint Fordé's!"

"No need; as long as you agree to keep him _there_ and not _here_, I'll pay for his stay there until he graduates his senior year."

"That's for years, though! I need to see my son _some_times!" she protested.

The blunette folded her arms over her chest and glared, "Then on your days off, you can go see him. I don't want him anywhere near this house!"

By now, Judai's mother was beginning to tear up. Gold hues darkened as crystal clear tears began to make her vision swim and make everything blurry. Her cheeks reddened in a flush and her nose darkened, sniffling.

"What did he _do_!?" she cried, stamping her foot down on the tile floor and watching the other woman intently, "Answer me that, at least!"

Jinsei was quiet for a moment before replying, "… one of my maids went to watch the two of them and caught Judai kissing Johan on the lips. I won't have a gay child lead _my_ son down the wrong path!"

"You _must_ be joking! Judai wouldn't do that! Maybe on the cheek, but not on the lips! He doesn't even do that to me, and he's much too young to even _know_ about those things!"

"I have an _eyewitness_, Seikou! And I've already called the school, so what's done is done. Even if he didn't do it, it'll be nice to finally be rid of him." The blunette held her nose up high, closing her eyes arrogantly and indicating that she wanted the conversation to end.

"He's just a kid!!"

"He's worse than a kid! He's a _troublesome_, _scrappy_ little _rat_!! Just like his mother!" she roared, standing up and giving the other woman the kind of angry look that _no one_ ever wanted to receive, especially from her.

It was then that Seikou's confidence and bravery shattered. She flinched back at the lady of the house's words, her tears clouding her eyes and her judgment. She could not handle any more of it… Spinning around on her heel, the orange-haired maid exited out the door and ran down the hallways toward the maids' chambers with her face hidden in her hands.

Jinsei watched the door slam closed behind the other before looking out the window to the cloudy sky outside. The once fluffy white clouds had darkened significantly and were now flashing off in the distance; another storm was on the way. How convenient…

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

"No way, Bubbleman! You are not gonna get _us_!" barked Judai Yuki as he stood in the center of the clearing, smiling heroically.

"But, Ju-chan! He's got us beat!" Johan Andersen reminded with an anxious look on his face.

"**Hahaha! Fear me and my bubbles!"** ordered the blue-clad spirit as he laughed heartily and aimed his bubble shooter at the two boys, **"Now feel the wrath of see-through circles! Wahaha!!"**

As the bubbles shot out of the silvery machine on his arm and came towards them, Judai immediately took Johan's hand and yanked him out of the way, dragging him along as he ran off to their left. Bubbleman's arm, however, merely followed their movements as he continued shooting the soapy spheres at them.

"Jo-kun, you get him on this side! I will go around and get him on the other side!" the brunette explained the plan as he ran as fast as he could, his best friend hardly being able to keep up with him at the pace he was going, "Ready?"

"Set!" Johan called, nodding in agreement as his grip on the other's hand went slack.

"Go!!" the two shouted aloud as they let go of each other's hands and went off in different directions.

Bubbleman stopped shooting bubbles at them when he noticed this strategy of theirs, finding that he could no longer get them both at once. Johan dashed to his right side quickly enough that he was able to get up close, but the spirit would not let him get away with it. His right arm stretched out to his side with the blaster nearly sticking itself directly in the young boy's eye; a chuckle escaped Bubbleman's throat as he spoke.

"**Not the best plan, there, Kid!"**

The blunette smirked, snickering quietly to himself, "Don't be so sure!"

"**Huh?"** Bubbleman asked, but then he felt a heavy pressure throw itself onto his back.

His non-existent eyes would have gone wide when he heard the laughter that erupted from whatever was now clinging to his back. Apparently, Judai had snuck up behind him while Johan was distracting him and now the spirit was nearly defenseless!

"**Aagh! Fine, you guys win!"**

Judai laughed as he hopped down, wobbling in his red tennis shoes from the drop. His best friend came up to his side and clapped his hand over his head, ruffling his hair playfully. The brunette pouted at this, only making the other laugh a little more.

"Awesome plan, Ju-chan!"

The younger boy picked up his arms and flailed them around until the blunette let go of his head, only to let his brown hair fall back into its usual, unkempt style. He winked and stuck his tongue out at the other before looking back over to Bubbleman, who was looking off into the forest. Chocolate eyes blinked curiously as he followed his gaze, only to see that the wind had gotten much more violent than it had been before. They had not noticed it there since Featherman had literally made the clearing a bubble that wind could not enter.

"Ju-chan…" Johan said, getting the other's attention to the point that he turned to look at him. Emerald eyes held a concerned glint in them, "Let's go back to the house. With the weather like this, Kaa-sama will be worried."

"**That's probably a good idea."** Bubbleman threw in his own two cents for the conversation as he turned around and looked off into the distant skies with his right hand shading over his hidden eyes, **"I don't like the looks of those clouds over there…"**

It was then that Featherman approached the three of them, his light blue eyes narrowing behind his feathery mask, **"And I **_**still**_** don't like the feeling I'm getting. Something bad is going to happen; I **_**know**_** it..."**

Johan moved his hand forward so that his fingers touched Judai's; the other boy's fingers instantly intertwined with his and held tightly to them. The weather was definitely taking a turn for the worst, so going inside was probably the best move. The blunette looked to Featherman and bowed his head for a moment in thanks.

"Thank you very much for protecting us from the wind! We'll be going back to the house now, though."

The green-clad spirit nodded, speaking a few words of advice, **"Be careful on your way back. You never know what the wind can do."**

With that said, the two spirits faded out of existence, leaving the two boys alone in the clearing. They both looked to each other, blinking in confusion; why had the wind not started up again? Their thoughts were answered when a huge gust of wind blew through the entire plain and forced them forward into a tree nearest to the house.

Their hair blew wildly in the air as they clung to each other and to the tree's trunk. The strength of the wind was definitely at a point of which it was possible that they could both fly away like leaves caught in a breeze. Eyes were shut tightly as they tried to hang on, but it was Judai who was able to recover first from the distress of their current situation.

One chocolate brown eye winced open, his vision blurry at first before focusing enough to see that the wind was forcing everything to blow in the direction of the Andersen mansion. Blinking both of his eyes open with some difficulty, he looked over to his best friend and yelled as loudly as he could over the wind.

"Let go of the tree!!"

Johan Andersen's head snapped in the brunette's direction with wide emerald eyes, "Are you _joking_?!"

"Trust me!!"

An unsure expression took over the blunette's features; Judai was a pretty impulsive person, and if he could compare his current plan to one of his passed ones, he would have to say that this one seemed to be one of his worst ideas. It was the serious look in those chocolate hues, however, that convinced him otherwise. Judai Yuki was his best friend and he could trust him with anything!

Johan nodded, and then the two let go of the tree in favor of allowing the wind to blow them forward. They shut their eyes tightly and held onto each other's hands more firmly until they felt their shoulders hit the back door. It was then that the wind blew even harder, making them turn slightly and flatten their backs against the wall.

Just _what_ was going on? The weather was never this bad… but it had gotten almost as bad as this on the day that Johan's father left the mansion for good. Could this be some sort of warning? Like what Featherman had said? Was something bad going to happen again?

Johan, who was closer to the door, reached out his vacant hand and managed to grab the doorknob. Pulling Judai closer to him, he grunted loudly as he tried to open the door, but the wind was holding it closed. He was barely able to open it by two inches when he decided to call for help, moving so that his mouth was near the crack in the door.

"HELP!! We're outside! Somebody, help!!"

"Jo-sama!" a masculine voice called faintly from inside.

A man dressed in a light blue butlers' uniform came and shoved open the door enough to yank the two boys into the house before the wind slammed the door shut again. The two young ones were bent over with their hands and knees on the tile floor, panting in a feeble attempt to get their breathing back under control. The black-haired man crouched down to their level, worry lacing his voice.

"What were you two doing out there? You didn't get hurt, did you?"

Judai had been about to reply, but Johan beat him to it.

"We were playing in an area that didn't have a lot of wind… I guess we just didn't notice how bad it was out there until we started coming back." He explained, smiling apologetically, "It won't happen again… We're going to stay inside now."

The butler nodded as he got back up to his feet and bowed politely, leaving the two where they were. The brunette pushed himself up so that he balanced on his knees, shaking his hair out a bit so that it went back into its perfectly-messy state. Looking over to his best friend, he smiled when he saw the blunette shake his own hair. When his light teal hair settled again, Judai's chocolate brown eyes went to the ruby necklace that hung around his neck. His smile widened as he remembered the moment when he had given it to his best friend; he would never forget it.

Johan looked to him and blinked, tilting his head to the side for a bit, "Hm? What's up, Ju-chan? Do I have something on my face?"

Judai shook his head, getting up to his feet and dusting off his fitted blue jeans, "Nope! Nothing! Hey, can we go play in my room? I think I still have your Pegasus in there…"

"Okay!"

The two boys then started running off down the hallway that led off to the left side of the house, quickly making it to one side of the maids' quarters. Since Judai was the son of one of the maids and there were so many different rooms on the lower level of the house, it made the most sense for him to have a room of his own down there, too. It was also planned that when he got old enough, and if he still even lived there, he would work as a butler there, too. The young boy really did not mind the idea as long as he would always be by Johan's side.

Passing by several maids, a couple of them actually stopped and took the time to tell them to slow down and that running was not allowed in the house. That rule was often disregarded by the two, so they obviously did not take any heed to their advice.

When they turned to run down the corridor that led directly to Judai's room, they both stopped abruptly. The momentum they had built up from running, however, made them fall to their right side a little bit. Johan, who had been slightly ahead of the other boy, reached out his left hand, of which Judai grabbed onto and pulled toward him. While Johan was able to regain balance, the younger of the two was not. Taking a step forward, the older boy pulled his arms up and caught Judai before he could fall too far.

The brunette's face burned with an embarrassed blush, but he still looked upward so that his eyes met with bright emerald green ones, "_Arigotou gozaimasu_, Jo-kun."

The blunette merely smiled at him, helping him stand up straight again on his own before turning to face the door, "So! We're going in, right?"

"Yeah!" he exclaimed, grabbing the knob and turning it.

When he pushed the door open so that it creaked into the room quickly, he found himself frozen in place, shocked. Johan had a similar condition.

Everything that had once occupied his shelves and desk were completely gone. Only the wooden furniture stood there, empty. Their ears twitched when a sound came from the inside of the room… a sound like someone _crying_. Judai took a few hesitant steps into the room, turning his head in the direction of his bed to see his mother on her knees by the bedside. There were three suitcases on the bed, all closed-up but seemingly full. Her arms were folded over the side of the bed and her face was buried in them, burnt orange hair hid her sorrow from the world. Sobs and sniffles, however, made themselves known by echoing off of the empty walls of the bedroom.

"… Kaa-san…?"

Her head snapped up when she heard his voice, showing her tear-stained, red-flushed face. Golden honey-colored eyes were slightly swollen from crying, and a few strands of hair stuck to the sides of her cheeks from how wet they had become. Bringing up her right hand, she tried to wipe away her tears without him noticing, but it had already been too late. Her young, six-year-old son had already seen, therefore it was time for him to find out why she was so sad.

"Kaa-san… where is all my stuff?" he asked innocently, inching closer to her.

"Ju-chan… M-my little… J-Jyudai…" she stammered through a sob she was trying to take control of. When her son came within arms reach, she threw her arms around him and held him close to her, "I-I'm s-sorry… I sh-shouldn't have let her g-get away with th-this!"

"Let who get away with what? What's going on, Seikou-san?" Johan asked, stepping up behind his best friend and watching his favorite maid attempt to explain.

"J-Jinsei-sama… Sh-she's sending Judai away… f-for a very, very l-long time!" Seikou Yuki was hardly able to get her words out before her grip around her son tightened and she lowered her head to his shoulder, crying even harder, "I-I didn't even _know_ about it until she t-told me!"

The young Andersen boy's eyes went wide when he felt his heart suddenly stop; Judai was being sent away? Away… away meant away from _here_, the Andersen mansion, which meant…

There was a possibility that he would never see Judai again.

He looked to his best friend to see his reaction to this information, only to find that his expression was one mixed between shock by the news and concern for his mother. Gulping, he took a shaky step backward as another realization struck him.

It had been his very own mother who made the order to send his best friend away.

His hands clenched into fists as he felt anger boil up inside of his small body, "I'm going to go talk to my kaa-sama!"

Before anyone could say anything more, the little blunette had sped out of the room and down the hallway to the long column of stairs. Following the staircase up to the second floor, his ear twitched as one of the clocks in the majestic corridor struck 2:00 PM. Jumping over the two topmost steps, his eyes darted in every direction, looking frantically for his mother.

"Oh! Jo-kun!"

He turned to his left, seeing her walk in his direction from exiting her special, private wing of the house. His hands loosened slightly as his courage began to slowly dissipate; could he seriously tell her not to send Judai away? He, a simple seven-year-old? Sure, she absolutely loved him to the very frightening point that she would give him anything he wanted, but she truly disliked the brunette.

The indigo-haired woman came up to him, standing exactly a yard away from him. Her piercing oceanic eyes glued themselves to his neck, shining suspiciously.

"Jo-kun, where did you get that necklace?"

For a second, he was unsure of what she was talking about, but then he looked down and remembered the ruby necklace Judai had given to him earlier that day. He smiled pleasantly at it, picking up his right hand and touching his middle and index fingers to the bright red jewel.

All of a sudden, he felt his determination become renewed. Judai just had to stay at the mansion, he just _had_ to! He would not let his mother send his best friend away from him.

"Why are you sending Ju-chan away!!?" he asked loudly, taking a step closer to her with a hard look in his eyes, "You can't do that! I won't let you make him leave!!"

Jinsei Kisaki Andersen was taken aback by her son's unexpected outburst, but she quickly recovered and smiled gently, "He's simply too troublesome to keep around here anymore… I would much rather he not be here, so I'm sending him to a lovely school in the next town over. It'll be much better without him around; you'll see!"

Johan glared at his mother, "He's my _best friend_! Without him around, I have _no one_! By sending him away, you're hurting _me_."

"Jo-kun, you can make other friends… other, less troublesome ones."

"KAA-SAMA!!" he finally yelled, making the woman jump, "Leave Ju-chan alone! If you go through with this, I'll hate you _forever_!!"

A long, loud gasp escaped the blue-haired woman at the boy's words; how could he go so far? Her mouth curled to form a displeased frown as she picked up her right hand and snapped her fingers. Right on cue, the same butler that had helped Johan and Judai come back into the house approached her side, bowing deeply.

"My lady?"

"Take my son to his room, and make sure to lock him in. He's hereby grounded from leaving the second floor until after four o'clock today." She ordered nonchalantly, ignoring the looks she was getting from her son.

"Kaa-sama!!" Johan called, not believing that she could be so cold-hearted that she would keep him from seeing his best friend while he was still there.

Jinsei turned around and walked back to her private quarters, paying absolutely no attention to him as the butler took him by the wrist. The tall man apologized to the small boy before dragging him unwillingly to his room.

"No! Please, don't do this! I have to see Ju-chan!! I have to be with him!! Why can't any of you understand that!?" he cried until he was let go inside of his room. Tears filled his eyes as he sniffled, looking up at the butler forlornly, "Why…?"

"Forgive me, Jo-sama…" the man whispered before turning around and exiting the room, a soft _**click**_ coming from the lock on the door.

Johan walked to his bed and sat on top of it before lying down on his side, crying quietly to himself, "Ju-chan… _gomen ne_… Ju-chan…"

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

"Karen! Karen!!" a certain young, black-haired boy called as he ran down the second floor hallway, looking from side-to-side, "Where are ya, Karen??"

A maid exited a room near him, hearing his shouts. Curiously, she approached his side and took his shoulder into her left hand, stopping him from going onward. Jim Cook Andersen came to an abrupt halt, staring up at the woman in confusion. All she did was smile down at him, though.

"Who're you looking for, Jim-sama?"

He blinked for a moment before smiling back at her, "I'm lookin' for Karen! I put her down for a minute, but she's just up and disappeared on me!"

"Eh? Who's Karen? Another maid? Or a friend?"

"No, no!" Jim laughed, shaking his head, "Karen's not a maid! But she _is_ my best friend! Ojii-san gave her ta me for my birthday present!"

"_M-matte…_ b-birthday present?" the blonde-haired maid stuttered, going rigid as she remembered hearing that Ginka Andersen had given the young boy a reptile for a pet.

"Yup! Karen's my crocodile!" he came right out and said, just in time to hear someone scream down Jinsei Kisaki's private corridor, "Aagh! Sounds like she's gotten inta Kaa-sama's room… Thanks, anyway, though!"

After saying that, he turned and ran off to his mother's room, throwing open the door to see the indigo-haired woman curled up into a ball against the pillows of her mattress. Karen the crocodile was lying at the foot of the bed on the floor, her eyes darting around to figure out where that horrible screeching sound was coming from. She groaned uncomfortably, but when the doorknob hit the wall beside the door, her reptilian eyes looked over to where he stood at the threshold.

Jim smiled, "There you are, Karen!"

Karen's large mouth would have curled into a huge smile if it was possible, but all she did was crawl up to his feet. The black-haired boy bent down and picked her medium-sized form up into his arms. She pressed the side of her long snout against his cheek and let out a soft, pleasant hiss.

"Aww, its okay, Girl! Just try not ta go movin' about when I tell ya ta stay put!"

Another hiss came in reply, and that was when he remembered his mother. Looking over to the frightened woman who was trying to press herself into the backboard of the bed, he waved to her with one of his hands, holding onto Karen with the other.

"_Gomen ne,_ Kaa-sama! 'Shouldn't happen again!" he apologized before turning around and leaving the room.

As he closed the door behind him, his ear twitched as a few voices in another room reached him. His blue eyes looked in the direction they were coming from.

"… Did you hear about Judai? And Johan?" one female voice asked.

"Oh, yes! Of course! It's all over the house, by now!" another replied.

"Isn't that just the saddest thing you ever heard? Johan getting locked in his room… He can't even see poor Judai off as he leaves! I even heard that the Lady Andersen is going to keep Judai at that school until he graduates his senior year!"

Jim's eyes went wide when he heard this; Judai was leaving? And Johan was locked in his room? Blue eyes narrowed as he came up with a plan, turning to run off toward his little brother's room with Karen held closely in his arms. She let out a short groan as if to ask what was going on, but all the boy did was smirk slightly.

"We're gonna help Jo-kun get ta Judai! Ready for some fun, Girl?"

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

The room had long since darkened significantly; the curtains around the windows were held open, but black clouds littered the skies above and hid the bright sun away from the Andersen household… and from the world.

Johan Andersen lay on his left side, sorrowful emerald eyes staring straight out the window with tiny streams of tears sliding over the bridge of his nose and under his eye to reach the blanket beneath him. The way he was sprawled motionlessly over his bed made him look like a broken doll… One that had once had so much fun, but would never again experience such a good time.

_**Knock, knock, knock!**_

His body remained still, but his eyes slowly looked over to the door. No sound escaped him as he merely gazed blankly at the white door that had been locked about an hour or so ago. A few more knocks came, and then a familiar voice spoke up.

"Jo-kun! It's me! Jim!"

Johan blinked his tears away, straightening up on the bed and scrambling up to the door. He fell to his knees in front of the door, placing the palms of his hands over its wooden frame. His eyes were filled with hope and sadness.

"Onii-san! Kaa-sama is sending Ju-chan away!!" he called, trying to explain the situation.

"I know, I know! I heard already from a couple of gossiping maids, but that's not important! What's important is getting you back over to Judai before he leaves!"

"But the door's locked!" the blunette pointed out, but just when he finished saying so, he heard a quiet _**click**_ in front of him, "Huh?"

He backed up and watched as the door swung inward, his older brother standing in front of him with Karen under one arm and with a key ring being twirled on his left index finger. A clever smirk was on his face as he winked at the younger boy.

"Never underestimate what a boy and his crocodile can do!"

"Onii-san!" he exclaimed, hopping forward and giving Jim a quick hug before looking both ways down the hall.

There did not seem to be any maids or butlers around at the moment… but it was a long run to the stairs from there. Anyone could pop up and send him back to his room at any time. Biting his lip, he gulped and looked to his brother again.

"How're we going to get to Judai without running into anybody?"

"Leave that to me and Karen… but for now, follow me! And be quiet, okay?" Jim explained, holding his index finger in front of his face in a motion to stay silent.

Johan nodded, walking as quietly as he could as his brother led the way toward the long row of stairs that led back down to the first floor. If anyone could help him, Jim could, so no matter what, the blunette had faith in his brother. He would _definitely_ see Judai again before he left for good.

After a few slow tip-toes forward, Jim made a motion to run quietly. This was when the two scurried forth, reaching the staircase easily enough. The older boy looked over to the hallways out the corner of his eye, not seeing any movement from there. Nodding, he took his brother's hand and started down the steps. Johan, being dragged down, nearly tripped a few times, but was able to keep his balance. Once they were both on the first floor, the problems they did not face on the second started to arise.

Several maids were scurrying across the floor, carrying baskets of laundry, food, decorations that needed moving, and other things. Jim pulled Johan over to one of the pillars near the stairway, hiding him behind it. Apparently, this was where things would get a little bit more difficult, but the black-haired boy had a plan, should anything happen.

Looking both ways, he walked out alone into the center of the room and stopped a few of the maids that tried to cross the room, "_Sumi masen_! My kaa-sama would like to see all of you in her room right now. I don't know why… She just told me to call a handful of maids to her for help with something."

The four women blinked at him, but shrugged, thanking him as they started up the stairs, completely unaware of Johan's presence behind the column. Again, Jim looked around, and when he thought it was safe, he called his younger brother to his side. Johan smiled, dashing up to the other boy's side.

"Hold it!!"

The two froze in place when they heard the yell of a familiar maid. Turning around in the direction that Jim had not secured, they saw the new maid, Aurelia DeMont, standing there with a mop in hand and two other maids standing behind her.

"I believe, if I remember correctly, that Johan is to be confined in his room… Why, may I ask, is he out here on the first floor?" Her dull blue eyes were narrowed threateningly, trying to freak the two young ones out.

It worked on the younger of the two, who hid behind his brother, but Jim was unafraid. All he did was raise an eyebrow at the woman, a smirk curling on his face.

"Alright… You caught us! But here's the twist…" he began, bending down so that Karen's feet touched the ground, "my Karen will get _you_!"

The two maids behind the newcomer looked scared out of their minds, but all Aurelia did was take a step back, glaring, "You wouldn't…"

"Get 'em, Girl!" Jim exclaimed, pointing directly at the trio.

The crocodile opened its long snout to show rows of small, but sharp teeth before it clamped down again and started crawling quite fast toward them. The two frightened women turned around and ran into the other room, but Aurelia just growled and threw the front of the mop down on the reptile's face.

"Your little pet doesn't scare me, Kid!"

Again, Karen's mouth opened up wide, a loud hiss coming from her as she swung her head to the side and over the mop, biting down on it and the stick. The brunette's eyes went wide in surprise when she could not pull her only weapon away from the crocodile.

"What!?"

Jim chuckled for a moment, amused by the lady's attempt to be brave. It was then that he felt a light tug on his dark vest, and he remembered what he had set out to do in the first place. Pulling his right hand back, he took his little brother's hand and ran toward the front door. They were almost there!

_**Bong! Bong!! Bong!!! Bong!!!!**_ Johan felt his heartbeat nearly stop when he heard the sound of one of the clocks on the first floor hit four o'clock. Was he too late?

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

The wind had started to calm already, but darkness still reigned over the land. Judai Yuki stood out in front of the Andersen mansion, three suitcases surrounding him. Chocolate brown eyes that had once held so much joy and light were downcast and staring straight down at the dirt ground. His flare red T-shirt was a little bit ruffled from when he had tried to fall down the staircase and hurt himself, trying to give everyone a reason to keep him there for even just a _little bit_ longer, but he had not fallen far, and his mother stopped him. His small hands were stuffed into the pockets of his faded blue jeans and he was completely silent.

Seikou Yuki watched her son with just as much sadness as she had earlier, but she had managed to stop crying long enough to see him off. Using her finger to put a few stray strands of burnt orange hair behind her ear, she suddenly heard the sound of a large vehicle coming up the driveway. Golden eyes looked off toward the entrance, seeing a maroon red and white bus drive toward them. Across the side of the bus, the words _"St. Fordé's Catholic Academy for Boys"_ were painted in big, wine red letters. The woman put her hand over her young one's shoulder, squeezing gently.

"There's your bus, Ju-chan…" she whispered, trying to keep herself from breaking down again. Bending down to his level, she turned him to face her, staring golden brown into chocolate brown, "I promise to come see you every chance I get… And while you're there, be sure to look for a lady named Tome, okay? She will help you… She's your—"

Before she could finish her sentence, the bus's brakes screeched to a stop right in front of them. The doors opened up and the tall, skinny bus driver stepped out, bowing to her.

"My lady… I take it that this is Judai Yuki?" the man asked as he stood back up straight.

Seikou's eyes softened as she too stood up, nodding, "Yes, Sir… Please take care of my son while on the way to the school."

"Of course! I'm only doubling as a bus driver tonight; I'm actually one of the history teachers at the academia."

Judai looked up at the long-haired man who stood in front of them, noticing the pleasant look on his face. His voice was a naturally soft one, but his eyes looked like they were closed behind the small glasses that hung at the tip of his nose. His black hair was pulled back into a low ponytail, but his long bangs framed his gentle face. He wore a long-sleeved, white work shirt with a maroon red tie hanging loosely over his chest. His smile was enough to calm Judai's fears of leaving. This man bent down and placed his hand over his mop of orange and brown hair, ruffling it some.

"Hello, Judai… You may call me Daitokuji-sensei."

"Daito… kuji… -sensei?" Judai blinked up at him as he pulled his hand off of his head.

"Mm-hm! If you ever need anything, please do not hesitate to ask me. As a teacher, I am always here to help my students." His smile was genuine toward the youngling.

The brunette managed a shy smile, nodding, "_H-hai…_"

A beeping sound suddenly started and the dark-haired teacher picked up his left arm, looking at the watch around his wrist, "Oh, dear! It looks like I took up too much time! We had better get going back to the school before they close up the gates on us!"

He stood back up and held his right hand out to the young boy, "Are you ready, Judai?"

Judai picked up one of his suitcases in one hand and gave his other to the man, nodding again, "Ready when you are, Daitokuji-sensei!"

Mr. Daitokuji smiled again at the boy, pulling him up onto the half-empty bus. There were a few other people on the bus, both young and old, and all seemed to be heading for the same place. Judai was led to sit in the seat behind the bus driver's, so that he would not have to be so lonely. He put down his one suitcase, and then his mother came up with his other two, placing them on top of the first one. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before tearfully saying goodbye to him and getting off of the bus.

The dark-haired man waved slightly at Seikou Yuki before closing the doors and starting the bus back up, beginning to go back down the driveway.

_**SLAM!!**_ Seikou winced at the loud sound that exploded behind her, turning around to see what had happened. The front doors to the Andersen manor had been forced open and Jim and Johan were running off toward her. The two stopped beside her, panting.

"Where's… Judai…?" Jim asked through huffs of breath.

The orange-haired lady pointed off to the bus that was slowly hobbling down the dirt driveway, "He's already leaving…"

Johan's emerald eyes widened, "No!!"

Pushing himself off of the ground, he jumped into the air for a second and started running as fast as he possibly could, trying to catch up with the bus. Tears ran down the sides of his face and literally floated into the air behind him as memories he and his best friend shared flooded his mind. His heart clenched at all the good times they had together, the thought of it all fading away making him cry even harder.

"Ju-chan! JU-CHAN!!" he cried, hoping that his voice could somehow stop the vehicle and at least let him say goodbye to his best friend.

His faint yelling made it to the people sitting in the back of the bus, one elderly man grumbling loudly, "Who's yelling?"

"Hey… Some kid's running after the bus!" a teenager said aloud.

Judai's ear twitched; a kid? He immediately jumped out of his seat and rushed to the back of the bus, falling to his knees by the glass door and staring out to see Johan chasing after the bus. Tears sprung to life in his eyes, making his true sadness known.

"Jo-kun!!" he tried to yell through the glass, punching the window in an attempt to get to him. His strength as a child was nowhere near enough to do so, though.

Johan's blurry vision almost hid the brunette from his sight, but he could hear him crying his name and he could barely make out that mess of orange and brown hair through the tinted glass door. A weak smile came over him as he reached out his hand, hoping that he could somehow grab onto the bus and be taken along with his best friend.

Judai pressed his hands against the glass, watching the blunette with a face that would make anyone want to cry their eyes out, "Jo-kun…!"

The older of the two was just about to grab the step that would allow him to sneak onto the bus through the back door, but he suddenly tripped over the divider that separated their dirt driveway from the black street that led into town. He fell forward some, his face landed in his folded arms safely. He quickly got up to his knees, looking forward and watching the bus gain speed. He could see his best friend yelling and banging on the glass door, and then someone pulled him backward, probably back to his seat.

Johan sniffled as more tears slid down his face, "_Sayonara_… Ju-chan…"

* * *

Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:

Yeah... Before you start throwing tomatoes and other things at me, please let me explain myself! There _is_ a method to my madness!

The following 4 Not-Chapters will show how Judai & Johan are coping without one another... and _then_ we'll skip ahead a handful of years to when they'll be meeting again!

NO MATTER WHAT, THIS FIC **IS** GOING TO BE _SPIRITSHIPPING_!! XD

Okay, now I should probably go try to write the next Not-Chapter... We'll be following along with Judai and how he's trying to cope with staying at a Catholic Academy.

Keep a look out for it! ^_^


	4. Element Dark : Solitude

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or any of the characters your recognize from the show in this fic. She _does_, however, own a handful of characters that you _don't_ recognize from the show. ;D

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

Wow... Look at this quick update! 8D! And this Not-Chapter came out to be 25 pages, too! XDD! I just happened to finish it a little bit faster than I was able to finish the Prologue. ;P

Here's the fun thing about this Not-Chapter, though... We're following Judai while he goes to St. Fordé's! Watch his bad luck unfold! XD

ALL OF THIS HAS TO HAPPEN! This stuff'll explain what happens when the actual fic starts up. ;P YUP! That's right, this fic hasn't yet started up! This is just the stuff that'll make you understand why certain things happen in the later Actual Chapters. Haha!

Okay! You can go read now! XD!

**

* * *

**

**: ****Element **:** Dark**** : **Solitude – _Have I Been Abandoned?_

How long had it been since he first left the huge white house that stood alone on the countryside? How long had it been since he last saw his mother? Or heard her voice? How long had it been since he watched his absolute _best_ friend chase after the large city bus he was currently in and then disappear after falling down?

All of these questions ran through the mind of the young Judai Yuki, who sat at the front of the long, red and white bus that drove along a quiet, lonely roadway. He leaned his temple up against the window to his left side, pulling his feet up onto the seat so that his short arms could wrap around his knees. During this long ride, they had stopped a handful of times to take detours and pick other people up. By now, they were far enough away from the Andersen mansion that the weather should have been clearer, but the sky was still quite cloudy and it was still very, very dark.

Judai's eyes looked upward toward the wide mirror at the front of the bus, using it to look at the bus driver. The skinny man who drove the bus had introduced himself as Mr. Daitokuji earlier that day and he seemed like a nice enough person, but he had not spoken a word to him since they left. This bothered the little six-year-old as he pouted.

"… How long has it been?"

"Hm?" the black-haired man asked, wondering if he had been talking to him, "Oh, well… since I picked you up at around four o'clock… and it's seven fifty-five now… It's been almost four hours!"

The brunette let out a soft whining sound as his chocolate brown eyes moved away from the mirror and back to look out the window. It may have been dark out, but the lights of buildings and streetlights were enough to comfort him. He had developed a great fear of pure darkness thanks to what happened the previous night, and without his best friend or any of the Light spirits to protect him, he did not know _what_ he would do if Dark Spirits decided to show up again. His grip around his legs tightened as he tried to suppress the horrible memory of being corner by several frightening creatures.

"Now, now, Judai… There's nothing to worry about! Saint Fordé's is a very lovely school and all of the students enjoy it there. I'm sure that if you just give it a chance, you could love it, too." Mr. Daitokuji assured him, a pleasant smile widening over his lips as he kept his invisible eyes on the road, "We're almost there, too, so it shouldn't be much longer."

"Hmph…" the little boy mumbled as he lowered his chin to rest behind his knees.

He did not _want_ to give this school a chance; he wanted to go back home to where his mother was… to where the Hero spirits were… to where his best friend was. He could feel his sadness begin to bubble inside of his heart again as tears formed in his eyes. Chocolate eyes fell closed, however; he did not want to cry anymore. It was not helping him in the least. Crying would not make Mr. Daitokuji turn the bus around to waste another three and a half hours in order to take him back to the Andersen house.

"Are you okay there? Judai?"

Judai reopened his eyes, now clear of tears, to look up at the mirror again. The man driving the bus was still not looking at him… or at least not tilting his face upward to show that he was watching him at all.

He really just wanted to ask the other person if there were spirits at the academy they were heading to. Good or bad, it did not matter, because as long as there was one, there _had_ to be the other. Just as he thought he might actually go through with asking aloud, he remembered how his mother had told him _not_ to tell anyone that he could see ghosts. She said that people would treat him differently and that they would not like him. The thought of being disliked made him sad, but since he was going to a place where no one besides this one teacher knew him, he would not have any friends. He would be completely alone.

It was this thought that made him feel even worse about his current situation. He missed his best friend… He missed Johan so, so much.

"Ah! We're here!" came the soft voice of the bus driver.

Since it had been such a long ride from the countryside to their destination, Judai leaned over his luggage and craned his neck to his right so that he could see out the huge front window of the bus.

His eyes went wide in awe at the sight, "Whoa!"

Two tall, silver metal gates gleamed from the headlights of the vehicle, standing wide open to either side of them. The view _behind_ the gates was definitely something to behold.

There were several large, two-story buildings set next to one other, all made of beautiful ivory brick. Millions of windows were lit up from the inside with golden light radiating from each one, signifying that many students were still awake. Off to the sides of the structures were many clusters of trees that could pass for small forests, but placed in the same general area were numerous stone statues. Sculptures of angels, saints, and many other things were scattered across the courtyards, filling the spaces that grass and trees did not. A small sign had been posted up a little ways from the gate to the side of the road, reading _"Welcome to St. Fordé's Catholic Academy for Boys."_

Mr. Daitokuji's smile widened when he heard Judai's reaction to the appearance of the school, "Lovely… isn't it?"

"_Un_!" the little brunette nodded as an excited grin came to him, "It is so big! Is this really the school? _Honto, honto_??"

The black-haired man allowed a small chuckle to escape him, "Of course! Sit back, now, though; I'm going to stop the bus here in a second and I don't want you to hurt yourself."

The young one backed up into his original seat and put his right arm over the stack of three suitcases beside him. He looked out the window to his left again, watching as trees and odd statues passed them by. It all looked so amazing and new to him! He had grown up in the Andersen mansion and would occasionally go to the supermarket with his mother, but never had he seen a place as big and beautiful as this!

His thoughts were interrupted when the bus came to an abrupt stop, the brakes screeching loudly enough to make everyone on the bus wince. Mr. Daitokuji laughed embarrassedly as he quickly opened the doors and stood up in the isle.

"My apologies! This bus is quite old… but we made it back all right!" He stepped closer to the driver's seat again as people started getting up to walk out, "Welcome to St. Fordé's!"

Judai watched as the older people and the teenagers exited the bus, noticing that there had not been any other kids around his age aboard. He blinked, wondering why that could have been, but then he realized that he and the tall man were the last ones. Looking upward, he saw that the other had picked up two of his suitcases already and was watching him intently. All the child did was blush before hopping out of his seat and taking the last of his luggage in hand.

"You don't have to worry about a thing, Judai… I'll tell you everything you need to know while you're here. But right now, we should get you to your new room! It's getting late."

"_Hai_!" He nodded, following Mr. Daitokuji off of the bus.

Standing toward the front of the bus was another man, one that did not have a very friendly look on his face. Mr. Daitokuji tossed him the keys to the bus, his kind smile still in place as he spoke.

"She's all yours, Giese!"

The spiky red-haired man caught the keys with his left hand, grumbling something under his breath as he climbed into the bus and closed the doors. Judai tilted his head at this, intentionally watching the muscular man inside of the vehicle. The history teacher beside him followed his gaze and then shrugged.

"Let's get going, shall we?"

The brunette looked back to the person who would lead him in, scurrying along beside him in an attempt to keep up with him. As they walked up the maroon red brick pathway, Judai noticed that the entire first floor of the main building was built with see-through, glass window walls. One could be standing outside and still be able to see what was going on inside, but all they could see were many closed doors within long hallways.

However, they were not heading to the main building. Mr. Daitokuji turned down a different path when their current one split into three, walking to their right. This confused the young boy; where were they going? He opened his mouth to ask, but the other seemed to have read his mind without even looking at him.

"It's too late an hour to go in there… I'll show you to your class tomorrow, so I'm taking you straight to your dorm."

"Dorm…?" Judai asked, not knowing what he was talking about.

"Ah! Dorm is short for dormitory; it's where your room is and where you'll sleep from now on. There are several other kids who live in the dorms, but I don't remember hearing that you would have a roommate… so you'll have a room all to yourself."

A room all to himself? It sounded just like home… but Judai did not like to be alone. Having a roommate sounded like a very appealing idea, but if the school did not assign him one, then it was probably best not to ask. He sighed quietly to himself.

The building off to the right side of the main one was apparently the dormitory he had been placed in. This one did not have the window walls to see what was inside, but the door that led inside was of glass. With Mr. Daitokuji's hands full, he politely asked if Judai could pull it open for him. The little boy walked up in front of the black-haired man, reaching up and pulling the heavy door backward to its limit. Once the older had gone through, Judai quickly followed after, the door closing behind him.

There were several doors to see just from standing on the inside of the front one, and from what he could see, there were three hallways to go down. They were standing in the middle of one, and then to either side of them was a hallway that led straight ahead. Blinking at this, it took him a few seconds to notice that his guide had started walking again. He jumped slightly before running up to Mr. Daitokuji's side, following him down the right hallway. The brunette looked from side to side, finding more wooden, maroon red doors closed shut with white numbers glued to them. His curious frown twitched into a tiny grin; this reminded him of the maids' quarters at the Andersen mansion.

"Oof!" he mumbled, running into the history teacher's long right leg. He had not been aware that he had stopped walking, but it was a good thing he had, "Huh?"

Mr. Daitokuji moved to his left a bit so that the young one could see what their next obstacle was; a long, winding staircase stood in their way at the end of the hall, "We have to climb up these stairs because your room's up there. Be sure to hold onto the railing! Several students that aren't careful have fallen."

Hearing that, Judai gulped nervously; he had a problem with falling… He did it often, but he had not gotten hurt in the past because his best friend was always there to catch him. How would he handle this new predicament?

"Come on, now! Don't be scared; you just have to be careful!"

Nodding, the little brunette started up the staircase, his right hand gripping the railing firmly with every step he took. His small legs, still cramped from sitting on the bus for about four hours, started to hurt after going up the first ten steps. His mouth opened slightly as he breathed in small pants, trying to catch his breath. These stairs that spun around in an odd shape were a lot more tiring to walk up than the simple straight stairway back home.

He could feel himself slowly losing balance as his head suddenly felt lighter, almost making him feel a little bit dizzy. Trying to take another step forward, his body fell backward as his right foot wound up leaning back, as well. His right hand, however, was still clamped onto the railing, so all he did was turn at a 90 degree angle and fall back against the railing. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm down.

"Judai, are you feeling okay?"

Reopening his eyes, he saw two blurry Mr. Daitokujis leaning over him to see if he was already, but he closed them again and shook his head, trying to focus. Chocolate hues opened again and he saw normally; he nodded in reply to the other's question.

"Y-yes… I am fine."

"There aren't many more steps left to go, so don't worry too much. Just a little more and you can rest in your new room."

Judai pulled himself back up straight, starting to walk up the stairs again. The man had been right; it had not been long until they reached the second floor and stood in another hallway that split to their left and their right. Mr. Daitokuji immediately started walking off to the left, turning the corner to another corridor. Judai pouted, running as fast as he could after the man. He had taken a little too long a rest and hoped that the other had not gone too far. However, when he turned the corner, he ran into the man's left leg, this time. Mr. Daitokuji looked down at him with that smile of his, chuckling at his cuteness.

"We're here!"

The brunette looked up at the door, seeing the number 40 nailed to the wooden door in white. Apparently, his room was located beside the one to the farthest left corner on the second floor. Blinking, he looked to the man again with a confused look that simply asked _"what do I do now?"_

Mr. Daitokuji's smile faltered for a moment and then he laughed in epiphany, lowering Judai's luggage to the wine red carpet floor. His now-vacant hands slipped into the pockets of his black slacks, and then his right hand pulled out a small key ring with a key hanging off of it that had the number 40 painted on it in red. He quickly put it to the door's lock and unlocked it, pushing it open.

The room inside was a small and cozy one, a lot like his old room. He did not want to enter it, though, because it was so dark. The man noticed this and stepped inside, flipping the light switch so that the ceiling fan and light turned on. Now that the area was lit up, Judai walked in and looked around at what was inside of it. There was a full-sized bed centered against the west wall with a small bedside table to the left of it and an outlet to the right. Against the north wall sat a long working desk, probably for doing schoolwork, with a black rolling chair pushed in under it. Above the desk was a window that was currently hidden behind maroon red curtains. Positioned against the eastern wall were two chests of drawers for clothing and in the corner to the door's left was a dresser with a mirror nailed to the wall. All in all, it was a simple room.

Judai had been so busy studying the room that he did not see Mr. Daitokuji bring in his suitcases and put them next to the bed. The man smiled at him as he approached him, placing his hand over his mess of orange and brown hair to ruffle it.

"There you go! Now remember, the bathroom is down this hallway to the left. You can't miss it because it has the Boys Restroom sign on the door."

The young one let out a small whining sound as he took a step to his right, away from the black-haired man and his hand. This only made the other laugh again.

"I'll come pick you up tomorrow morning… You only have to attend have the regular school day on your first day since we have to look through a few things, though." He explained over his shoulder as he walked toward the doorway. He turned and put his right hand over the doorknob, holding the Room 40 key in his left hand, "And before I forget!"

In an instant, he tossed the key to the six-year-old, who turned his head and would have been hit in the face with it if the object had not bounced off of something invisible in front of him and then hit the floor. He blinked down at the key before looking back up, seeing a familiar brown fur ball materialize there with its back to him.

"**Kuri, kuri, kuri!!"** it thrashed in midair, shaking its fur out and shaking its green paws angrily at the teacher.

"Hane Kuriboh!" Judai exclaimed, chocolate eyes wide with the same delighted sparkle they had held back at the Andersen manor. He jumped up into the air as it turned around to face him, only to throw his arms around it and pull it close to his face, hugging it tightly, "I thought I would never see you again!"

"**Kuri, kuri! Kuri, kuri!"** the spirit piped, giggling happily at the big welcome it got.

"I knew it…"

Judai froze when he heard Mr. Daitokuji's voice, the bright shine in his eyes turning into fear. His mother had told him not to tell anyone that he could see spirits… but he had accidentally given away the secret by greeting one.

"O-oops…" he mumbled, still holding onto Hane Kuriboh.

The black-haired man shook his head, his smile still there, "Nothing to worry about. I won't tell anyone. The truth of it is that I can see them, too."

"_Honto_?!" The brunette's fear melted away as his excitement built up again; so grown-ups could see them, too? He thought that only special children like his best friend and himself were able to see them.

"Mm-hm! Imagine my surprise when I saw this little guy following you onto the bus and sticking with you on the way here."

There were so many questions popping up in the young boy's mind right then, like _"were you born with this gift?"_ and _"are there other people here who can see them?,"_ but unfortunately, the man was able to read him like an open book. All Mr. Daitokuji did was pick up his left hand and place his index finger in front of his nose.

"Shh… You can ask me all the questions you want tomorrow after your class, okay? Right now, you should get some sleep. Tomorrow's your first day, after all!"

Judai let go of Hane Kuriboh and let his arms hang loose by his sides as his excitement dissolved from view. He merely watched the man as he bade him farewell and closed the door behind him. Looking down at the key, he bent low and picked it up, staring at it as he held it between his index finger and thumb. He had to make note of not losing this key, lest he may not be able to get into his room.

"**Kuri?"**

Pushing himself back up to his feet, he approached the side of the bed and hopped onto it, bouncing lightly, "Haha! This bed is a lot bigger and more comfy than the one back at home!" Saying this aloud, his smile slowly died away.

He turned his head so that he looked toward the window, which was closed up with dark red curtains. Sliding off of the bed, he approached the desk and leant over it, pushing aside the curtains so that he could look out to the darkness. Apparently, the clouds of the day had disappeared and all that was left was the midnight blue sky and many twinkling stars. The view from where he stood was very beautiful, and looking downward, he was able to see another little courtyard with trees and sculptures.

"Pretty…" he whispered, but then he looked up to the sky again with a worried look on his face, "I wonder… if Jo-kun is okay. I know that he has the Crystal Beasts and Jim-onii-san there with him, but… I am sure he feels just as bad about me leaving as I do."

"**Kuri…"**

Judai turned around and walked back to the bed, pulling off his jacket and tossing it over the desk, "I will unpack tomorrow… Too sleepy to do anything…"

He then fell forward onto the bed, crawling over it so that he laid correctly on it and his head was on top of the hidden pillow beneath the comforter. Rolling over to lie on his right side, he curled his knees inward some as Hane Kuriboh floated in front of his face.

"**Kuri, kuri?"**

"Yes, you can sleep here… Come on, You!"

The little winged spirit floated down until it was on the bed, wedging itself under the young boy's chin and against his neck, **"Kuri…"**

"_Oyasuminasai_, Hane Kuriboh…"

As the brunette slowly fell asleep, his spirit partner faded away into invisibility, leaving him to sleep soundly with the belief of his little angel being there with him.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

How had he gotten himself into this mess? Judai Yuki groaned inwardly as he dropped down each one of the steps of the winding staircase for what seemed like the thousandth time that day, but it had only been the second. He just was not used to going up and down stairs like that.

He looked down at his clean black T-shirt and fitted white pants; luck had not been on his side earlier. When Mr. Daitokuji had come to get him at 9:30 AM, he had still been asleep. Due to the fact that he had done absolutely nothing the previous night, he had to take a quick shower and get himself downstairs into the main building to eat a "well-balanced breakfast," as the older man had put it.

Going down the stairs the first time had been a little bit easier since he had gotten rest, but once he got to the large cafeteria inside of the center structure he had not entered during the night, he experienced what one could call a "rude awakening."

Mr. Daitokuji had stood along with him in the breakfast line and put everything that Judai _should_ eat onto his maroon red tray, which was pretty much almost everything they had out. The boy did not mind, because his stomach was a black hole and he was not a particularly picky person when it came to food.

He followed obediently behind the history teacher toward an empty round table that they had been picked out while still in line, but on the walk to the table, Judai had already started eating. The eggs on his plate had somehow mixed with the bacon and made them look very odd, but being the curious little boy he was, he picked at it for a few seconds until he picked up a piece with his fork and ate it. Though weird as it had looked, he thought it tasted _wonderful_, so he kept shoveling it into his mouth with his right hand manning the silverware and his left holding the tray up with perfect balance. However, he had been too preoccupied with his food to notice one of the students near him get up from their seat and start to walk passed him.

_**CRASH!**_

"HEY!!"

"Aagh…!"

Judai fell back onto the tile floor with his tray upturned over his foot. A slimy scrambled egg had fallen onto his black pants around the left pocket and there was a wet spot slowly growing around his ankle from where his orange juice spilled on him. He tried to move his left arm forward, but winced from how hard he had run into the other boy.

"Watch where you're going, Kid!" the preteen growled, glaring down at the brunette for a few seconds before walking off.

"Are you alright, Judai?" Mr. Daitokuji asked as he bent down in front of him, careful to avoid the fallen drink.

"_Hai_…" Judai replied slowly, looking to the adult before looking around at his surroundings.

Several students, young and old, were making dirty looks at him; they made him feel quite uncomfortable and very unwelcome. Gulping, he looked back up to Mr. Daitokuji with a sad look on his face.

"Oh… I don't think it'd be a good idea to go the rest of the day wearing these clothes… You can go ahead and eat my food on the table; I'll just go get some more."

"_D-demo_!" the boy tried to protest; he did not like taking other people's food, especially if he did not know them very well.

"No buts! You're a growing boy and need to eat, and if I send you back in line to get more, you'll have wasted more time than necessary." The man explained, getting up to his feet and pulling the young one up, as well, "Now go ahead, and when you're done, we'll go back to your room so you can change."

Once Judai had unwillingly agreed, the teacher went back to the breakfast line as the brunette took his seat at the table, staring at the food sadly. His stomach, however, moaned loud enough that he thought everybody in the cafeteria could hear it. The funny thing about it was that they _could_, and many of them were laughing cruelly at him, whispering things about him. He ate the food quickly enough to satisfy his appetite, and quickly enough that once Mr. Daitokuji had come back to the table, he was done.

"My! You must've been hungry…" he laughed, sitting down beside him with his food.

Judai pouted, eyeing a piece of buttered toast on the other's tray. The teacher blinked at this, noticing right away and picking up the bread. When he did, innocent chocolate eyes watched like a dog watches a bone. A small snicker escaped him as he held it out to the young one, earning a thankful, teary-eyed smile.

The brunette gingerly plucked it out of the other's hand and took a bite out of it, sighing amiably afterward, "Aah… There's nothing like buttered toast to make a good morning!"

It was then that another preteen student walked passed him from behind, elbowing the back of his head. Judai yelped at the sudden unpleasant pressure that materialized behind his head, making him drop his half-eaten piece of bread to the floor due to his loose hold on it. Tears filled his eyes; what a waste of some perfectly good toast! He turned quickly at a 90 degree angle to glare at the other boy, only to receive a smug smirk and a half-hearted apology. He then left, quietly laughing at the younger boy.

Judai looked back to the teacher, seeing a look of sympathy on his normally contented face, "Maybe we should go back now…"

The little one nodded in agreement, being led back to the dormitory. Mr. Daitokuji had said, once they got there, that he would wait for him outside the glass door while he went on to change, which leads us back to where we started.

Now that Judai was wearing a clean set of clothing, he walked out of the dorm to meet with the black-haired man again, looking up at him with sad look that most puppy dogs were able to pull off. Mr. Daitokuji smiled comfortingly, ruffling his hair for a moment before gently placing the same hand onto his shoulder and leading him back to the main building. Their next objective was to get the boy to his class. Judai had not started school yet and had just been learning the basics from his mother and best friend back at the Andersen mansion, so he was almost a blank slate… albeit a very friendly and _sensitive_ blank slate.

Once they reached the classroom that would serve as Judai's class for the year, Mr. Daitokuji told him to wait there by the door while he called the other teacher out. The boy nodded, leaning his right shoulder and the side of his head against the wall. The black-haired man opened the door and politely asked for the teacher inside to come outside for a moment to talk. Judai watched curiously until a tall, young man exited and closed the door behind him. Chocolate eyes blinked up at him, noticing how pretty this man looked. He had been told, time and again, by his mother that boys were not _'pretty,'_ they were _'handsome,'_ but he was having a very hard time convincing himself that _this_ particular man was handsome instead of pretty.

The teacher was probably around his mid-twenties, but he looked young enough to pass for an older high school student. He had straight, waist-length blue-grey hair with the center of his snow white bangs gelled together over his forehead and had big, beautiful violet eyes. Long earrings hung near his ears, a crescent moon their main charm. His clothing was of a light blue work shirt with a white scarf wrapped around his neck like a tie and a pair of matching white slacks. His overall presence was of an important person with much to do, but from the radiant smile on his face, Judai's first opinion of him after a glance was completely altered.

"Takuma-kun, this is your newest student… Judai Yuki." Mr. Daitokuji introduced, motioning toward the little brunette.

Judai could feel the sides of his lips twitch upward into a shy smile as he took a hesitant step forward, "_A-ano… ohayo…_"

The blue-haired teacher smiled down at the adorable child, nodding, "_Ohayo_, Judai-kun… My name is Takuma Saiou, but you'll have to call me Saiou-sensei."

The boy tilted his head to the side some, "Saiou-sensei!"

Mr. Daitokuji nodded to himself, satisfied with their introduction, "Alright! Be sure to be good, Judai! After what happened in the lunch room, please try not to take any of the other kids seriously; they don't know what they're doing."

Judai did not understand what the history teacher was talking about, but before he could ask, he got a quick pat on the head before the black-haired man sped off down the hallway. He blinked, watching after him until he heard a soft _**ahem**_ beside him. Turning to look up at his new teacher, he was met with a sincere smile.

"Come join the class, Judai-kun… I'm sure that your classmates will love to meet you." With that said, Takuma Saiou reopened the door and held it open, watching as Judai walked on through into the room.

The moment he stepped inside, he immediately regretted it. The class must have been made up of about eighteen or nineteen kids around his age, so before he entered, they had been loud and chatty. Once he had become visible to them, a hush fell over the room as every eye locked onto _him_. A blush of embarrassment rose over his cheeks as he stood frozen in the doorway. The teacher closed the door behind them and placed his hand over the boy's shoulder, steering him to the front of the room where his podium was.

The blue and white-haired man stood behind the podium with Judai standing beside him in clear view; none of the children took their eyes off of him.

"Class, we have a new student joining us…" he announced, smiling down to the brunette, "Please, introduce yourself to the class!"

Judai had been frozen with fear once he made it to the front of the room, finding it very uncomfortable to be watched by many people he did not know. The way everyone just stared at him was quite unnerving and it reminded him of whenever Topaz Tiger would wait to capture him when his best friend needed his help. He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Anxiety made his chest tighten, but he closed his mouth and cleared his throat before trying again with a little more success.

"M-my name is Judai Yuki."

The entire crowd of children stayed quiet except for one person sitting to the left of the room near the center of his row, who laughed aloud. The brunette looked to the amused, short black-haired boy who stuck out like a sore thumb now, wondering what was so funny. Had he done something wrong? All he did was say his name…

"Yuki, huh? Sounds like _yucky_ to me!" the tan seven-year-old snickered, making everyone else besides Judai and the teacher laugh, as well.

"Yucky…?" Judai mumbled in confusion; what was _yucky_?

He had never heard that word before… at least, not at the Andersen mansion. His curiosity began to get the better of him so he was about to ask what the word meant, but he was cut off when the same little boy spoke in a language he did not recognize.

"_Es una persona sucia_! _Nadie le gusta gente sucia_!" He said loudly with an air of arrogance about him as he raised his chin upward and held a smirk over his face.

The class laughed even harder at the boy's words, but Judai took a frightened step backwards. What was going on? What language had he been speaking? And what did he even _say_? The fact that he could not understand made him feel even more confused and a little bit threatened; was he talking about him?

"_N-nandatte_…?" he asked so quietly that it came out a whisper.

"Eh? ¿_En qué idioma estás hablando_?" the strange, older boy questioned, raising an eyebrow at the brunette for a moment before epiphany lit his light blue eyes up and his smirk widened, "Aah… _Yo veo_…_ Tú no puedes hablar español_!_ Y no puedes entenderlo tampoco_!"

"Santiago, please be _quiet_!" Takuma Saiou commanded, his violet eyes narrowed with irritation, "There will be no making fun of our newcomer!" His firm look turned back into his previous gentle one as he looked at the poor Japanese Catholic boy beside him, "You can sit in the empty seat at the middle of the room, Judai-kun…"

The fear inside of those innocent chocolate brown eyes only increased when he realized that the boy he now knew as Santiago sat only a row away from his designated seat. He could feel his lower lip jutting out in a pout as he slowly walked up the line of occupied desks, ignoring the continued stares he was getting as he moved toward his chair. The six-year-old could hear Santiago chuckling evilly, but he kept himself from looking over to him. He did not want to see the face of someone would bully him.

Just as he reached his desk, a ringing sound echoed through the room. His eyes darted to the furthest corner to his teacher's left, seeing a circular patch of metal on the wall with several tiny holes on it. The noise seemed to be coming from it… He studied it for a few seconds longer, until the blue and white-haired man at the front of the room clapped his hands together and explained what the sound meant.

"Well, that's the bell! Time for recess, everyone! Play nicely, now!"

All of the kids rushed out of their desks and out the door, all exiting the building to play out in the courtyard. Judai blinked at the suddenness of it all; he had only just gotten there and it was already recess? Shrugging to himself, he walked outside, as well, watching everyone else.

They had all broken up into little groups of friends that likely had more in common with one another than with others, but the orange and brown-haired boy did not think he could fit in with _any_ of them. Although they looked like they were having fun, they would notice him watching them and whisper something among themselves, making everyone in their group laugh.

He felt a wave of sadness settle over him; the academy was such a beautiful place… Why were its inhabitants unfriendly? Was this not a religious school? He had always thought that people who went to church were kindly people who welcomed others, even if they were strangers from a foreign culture.

So far, the only people who had been nice to him were Mr. Daitokuji and Mr. Saiou. Judai took a deep breath and let out a long sigh, his eyes falling to stare down at the bright green grass beneath his feet.

"Oi'! _Yucky_!"

Judai suppressed a groan of discomfort; what did this guy want _now_? Turning slightly to his left, he faced the taller, older boy who did nothing but confuse him and blinked inquiringly at him. He did not even try to say anything, for fear of being made fun of in that language that he did not understand.

"What did you come to this school for? This place is bilingual, as in for English and Spanish speakers _only_!" Santiago spat with his hands on his hips and nose held high.

"Spanish? Was that the language you were speaking earlier?" the brunette asked before he could stop himself, but he did not move a muscle besides his mouth. In fact, from where the others could see him, he looked downright indifferent.

"It sure was! Not that a weird foreigner like you would know, though!" He picked up his arms to shrug, his white T-shirt moving upward from the motion, "What kind of last name is _Yucky_, anyway?"

"The name is _Yuki_! Judai Yuki! And it is Japanese, if you have to know!"

"Hah! Japanese? Then you must be a big-time foreigner! How did you get here to America, _Yucky_?" Santiago continued to stab at the other with his words, obviously trying to make him feel bad.

"Just because my name is Japanese does not mean that I am _from_ Japan!" Judai snapped, anger boiling up inside of him at the other boy's constant bullying, "I was born _here_! I just happened to pick up on the Japanese language instead of Spanish!"

"Oh, so are you saying that Spanish is not as popular as Japanese in these parts?" the black-haired seven-year-old asked, taking on a threatening look in his eyes as he walked closer to the newcomer.

When he noticed Santiago begin to approach him slowly, Judai started to back up, taking shaky steps backward in an attempt to keep distance between the two of them. Something was giving him a very bad feeling about the other boy.

"N-no… I did not say—"

The older boy had already reached him and stood directly in front of him, raising his arms and pushing Judai by his shoulders, "C'mon! Say it! Say that Japanese is better than Spanish! I _dare_ you!"

The brunette stumbled back from being shoved, landing himself against the glass wall of the building. He bounced lightly against it, wincing as a small pain that erupted on his back from the collision. One chocolate eye closed from the flinch while the other looked downward toward the ground.

Santiago had taken this as Judai refusing to reply, "Hah… I knew it. Y'see this, Guys?" He called to all the other students around them, getting their attention, "Judai Yucky thinks that he is better than us because he can speak Japanese!"

All of the kids made offended looks, whispering harshly to each other and beginning to uproar over what the arrogant boy had said. Judai looked from group to group of boys, trying to explain that he had not said any of that and that he did not feel that way, but no one would listen to him.

Tears swelled in his eyes, pooling to their sides at how absolutely hopeless the situation was. Turning around, he ran back into the building, reentering the small classroom and sitting himself in the corner near the intercom. His legs were pulled up against his chest as his arms wrapped around his knees, making him look like a little ball from the way he leaned his head forward over his arms. His shoulders shook as he sobbed; how could anyone be so cruel? He had thought that the Lady Andersen was bad, but this Santiago-guy was _evil_ in comparison! At least nobody believed her stories about him being a troublemaker back at the mansion, so he at least had friends there… Here, however, was a totally different story.

_I wish I had never come here… I wish I were back home with Jo-kun and the Elemental Heroes!_ He cried in his mind, unable to say anything coherent aloud.

Although he sat in a room with its light turned off, he was not frightened by its dimness. In fact, he thought that the environment suited the way he felt.

_**Creeeeeak!**_ The wooden door creaked open slowly, but Judai kept from looking up. His already pounding heart began to beat faster in fear that Santiago had followed him to further hurt his feelings. Quick, heavy footsteps clicked against the tile floor as whoever it was approached him, bending down beside him.

"Judai-kun, _doushitan_? What's wrong?" A soft, deep voice asked him.

Judai allowed his head to move upward slightly, just enough to show his watery chocolate eyes to the grown-up, "S-Saiou… s-sensei…"

The teacher leaned forward and put his arms around the little boy, pulling him into a comforting embrace, "Are you alright? Why are you crying?"

The brunette wondered whether or not it would be a good idea to tell him; his mother had always told him that if anything bad happened to him, he should tell an adult. However, he also wondered what Santiago would do to him if he told on him. Judai had always put his faith into his mother and lived happily without fail, though, so his decision was an obvious one with the next thing he said.

"S-Santiago… a-and the others… were b-being really, really m-mean to me…" he stuttered, pausing to sniffle between words, "S-Santiago… said untr-untrue things about me to everybody… n-now they all h-hate me…"

"Oh… Judai-kun, its okay... I'm sure that no one hates you! No one even _knows_ you, so they can't hate you! They just need time to get to know you…"

Judai wiped his tears against the teacher's shoulder, accidentally leaving damp spots there. He sniffled loudly again as he pulled away from the man, looking up at him with bright red cheeks shining from crying so much. The sympathetic look in Takuma Saiou's violet purple eyes made the little boy feel like he truly cared, so his sadness was able to dissipate some.

"_A-arigatou_… Saiou-sensei." He managed to smile weakly before getting up to stand, clearing his throat to calm down.

"You're welcome… and if anyone does anything mean to you again, please tell me. The kind of behavior that Santiago Aguilar exhibits is the kind that is not tolerated here at Saint Fordé's!" the teacher informed, wagging his left index finger in emphasis.

The brunette nodded, his smile gaining a little more confidence as the bell rang again. The loud sound occurred _just_ above him, making him flinch and clamp his hands over his ears. The blue-haired man laughed, standing back up and taking the little one by the shoulder again. He guided him to his seat and then walked back to the podium at the front of the room, just in time to watch all of the other students scurry back into the room and to their seats.

Santiago Aguilar entered the room last, his smug expression still in place, "What happened to you, _Yucky_? We were just about to have some fun when you left!"

From where Judai sat in his seat, all he did was lower his head closer to the desktop in hopes of hiding himself; he highly doubted that the older boy had anything _fun_ in mind to do with him. Before anything else could be said, Takuma Saiou cleared his throat loud enough to get everyone's attention, making everyone fall quiet.

"Don't think that I don't know what happened during recess… All of you know better than to be mean to a new student! What's one of our sayings here? Oh, yes, I believe it went something like 'If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!' And what's the golden rule?" he ranted sternly.

"'Treat others the way you want to be treated.'" The entire class said in unison, with the exception of Judai, who had heard these sayings only a few times at home.

"Good! You all know it! Now _follow_ it!" the adult ordered, but just when everyone started to calm down from the toughness their teacher was unexpectedly displaying, his violet eyes turned on the black-haired, blue-eyed troublemaker who started it all, "And you! Santiago, you get a Time-Out because you're the one who started bullying Judai-kun and then persisted throughout recess!"

"_What_?!" Santiago Aguilar shouted, "I did not do anything! It was all _Yucky_'s fa—"

"And that's _two_ Time-Outs! For talking back to an adult, now _go_!" the man pointed to the corner Judai had been sitting in a moment ago.

The seven-year-old grumbled angrily as he got up from his seat and crossed the classroom to sit down in the corner, facing the wall with his legs and arms crossed. Judai had brought his head back up to see what was going on once he heard the teacher punish the boy who nearly ruined his day. Maybe now he could make friends! His usual pleasant smile came to him as he looked around, only to revert into a frown again. All the other boys were glaring at him, probably for telling on Santiago.

The brunette sighed, lowering his head again; at least it could not get any worse. Nobody in the class besides Takuma Saiou would talk to him, but no one was making fun of him anymore, thankfully.

"Alright, Class; now that we have that out of the way, we'll continue reading the Book of Beginnings… _Genesis_." The teacher said, opening up a large orange book on the podium.

_Genesis_? The Book of Beginnings? Judai could have sworn he had heard of them before… After a few seconds, he remembered that his mother once read some of the Bible to him when he was younger. He grinned slightly; at least he would be able to understand a few things, considering he was not there to hear the beginning of the book.

"Okay, so a quick recap… The Lord our God has just given Adam, the first man, a woman to be his wife, Eve. Now, let's go on…" Saiou began, looking down at the book and reading aloud, "_Genesis_ 3, The Man and Woman Sin. _'Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the creatures the Lord God had made. _'Really?'_ he asked the woman, _'Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden?'_ And then the woman told him, _'Of course we may eat it. It's only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God says we must not eat it or even touch it, or we will die.'_ The serpent hissed at her_, "You won't die! God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.'

_The woman was convinced. The fruit looked so fresh and delicious, and it would make her so wise! So she ate some of the fruit. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. Then he ate it, too. At that moment, their eyes were opened…_"

Judai blinked as he listened; this had been how the serpent was cursed to crawl on its belly without limbs. Who could have known that animals could be wicked? He knew that animals had to survive on their own, but what good did tricking Eve and Adam do for the serpent? In the end, he was cursed… He shrugged; sometimes, things just did not make any sense to him, but then again, he _was_ only six-years-old.

The rest of the class went on as he had predicted; no one spoke to him and they just listened and discussed what the teacher had read aloud. Nothing too big happened, so by the time the clock struck 3:00 PM, the bell rang again. Apparently, that was the time class let out for the day, so Judai left the room after everyone else did. When he exited, he was met by none-other-than Mr. Daitokuji outside by the glass door.

"So! How was your first day?" the black-haired man asked cheerfully, expecting quite the positive answer from a boy like Judai.

The brunette, however, merely shrugged, "It was… okay, I guess."

Mr. Daitokuji frowned, "What? Just _okay_? Did anything good happen? Anything bad?"

A memory of being made fun of when he first introduced himself flashed through his head, and then turned to one of when he was being accused of thoughts he did not support. Judai did not really feel like reliving any of those moments, so he decided to shrug again and keep quiet. This made the man worry about the boy.

"Well… alright, I guess. Are you hungry? We could go get some lunch at the cafeteria and I could answer those questions you had last night!"

The little boy shook his head, looking up at the man with a forced smile, "Naa… I am just going back to my room for a while… You can go ahead."

"Are you sure, Judai?" Mr. Daitokuji continued, knowing now that something bad _had_ happened. When the child turned down food, something was wrong.

"Yes. See you later, Sensei." He said as he turned his back on him and walked back to the dormitory to the left of the main building. As he walked, his familiar Spirit Partner appeared, "Well, Hane Kuriboh… It looks like you're my only real friend here…"

"**Kuri…"**

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

"**Kuri, kuri! Kuri!!"**

"Aagh… Hane Kuriboh, _doushitan_?" Judai Yuki groaned, sitting up in bed.

_**Rrrr…**_ The half-asleep brunette was suddenly wide awake when he heard, and _felt_, the sound through the quiet darkness of his room, "Oh… that…"

After class had let out, Judai had gone back to his room and fallen asleep again. The day had been a horrible one, and after all the crying he did, he had been exhausted. His eyes looked over to the digital clock that glowed bright red over on his desk, reading 10:37 PM. He reached his arms upward to stretch, mouth opening wide to yawn.

"It looks like I slept longer than I planned to…"

_**Rrrr!**_ His stomach growled again, making him chuckle embarrassedly, "Alright, alright! I heard you the first time…"

"**Kuri, kuri?"** the transparent spirit asked, tilting his head to the side some.

"Huh? You wanna come with me?" the boy asked, only to receive an excited nod. All he could do was smile apologetically, "Sorry, Hane Kuriboh… You remember what Mom said, right? It is okay that Daitokuji-sensei knows about you, but I do not want anyone else to see you, if anyone else can."

Hane Kuriboh looked downcast as his wings stopped flapping, making him lose a few inches before starting to move them again. Judai laughed, reaching out and patting the spirit on its head.

"Don't worry! I will be right back, okay? If anything bad happens, though… you will come right away, right?"

"**Kuri!"** Hane Kuriboh nodded with a confident look in its big purple eyes.

With a genuine smile directed to it, the spirit disappeared and Judai started for the door. Opening it slightly, he peeked into the dark hallway, seeing it completely empty and not hearing anything but a wall clock _**tick-tock**_ing away. He would then open it _just_ wide enough to slip out and close it behind him. His chocolate eyes looked down the corridor that led to the staircase as he quietly bounded over to it.

Over the course of the day, he had learned a new, faster way of getting down the stairs, so he decided to try it out then, since it was as good a time as any. Putting his hands on both sides of the rail, he swung his legs forward and jumped down the furthest he could without hurting himself. He managed to grab onto the other rails quickly enough to catch himself so that his feet would not stomp against the hollow stair steps, sighing in relief as he tried to pull it off again. This time, when he jumped, he could not quite catch the rails correctly. His hand slipped, and when his feet hit the mid-step of the entire case, his knee bent forward and nearly made him fall. His left hand, however, had a good grip on the bar, so he was able to save himself. Wincing from the loudness of the drop, he stood still, trying to listen for anyone he may have woke up.

… Nothing. There was still no sound in the building, as far as he could tell. Sighing silently, he quickly hopped down the rest of the steps as carefully as possible and then rushed out the door.

Once outside, the cool night air hit his face; it was pretty chilly out for an August night… but he could not complain. He liked it when it was like this; not too hot, but cold enough to be comfortable. He started walking down the brick pathway in his black T-shirt and white pants, half-invisible to anyone who might have been watching. The orange patch atop his head was completely noticeable in the darkness, and his white pants made his legs _glow_ against the dim hallways in the main building.

_**Ffft!**_ Judai came to a stop, having heard an odd sound. He turned his head toward the building, wondering if it came from there.

_**Ffft!**_ There it was again! He turned his head in the opposite direction, to his left, and saw the same courtyard his class had been playing in during recess. It almost sounded like something was scrapping against glass… or _stone_.

Curious as to what could be making the sound, he slowly walked into the courtyard, passing as few trees until he wound up surrounded by them. He blinked as he looked around; there seemed to be five statues standing in the circular clearing within the trees. If one were to look down on the spot, they could connect the white stone sculptures to create a star. Looking off to the statue which stood directly ahead of him, he squinted through the darkness when he heard the sound come from it.

"Hey… Is somebody there?" he asked innocently, completely unaware that there was a chance that if someone _was_ there, he could get in trouble, or worse, killed.

The scrapping sound continued one more time before it occurred a second time, but much louder and faster. He flinched back at the sound, raising his eyes from looking at the ground to look back at the statue. In the blink of an eye, the top half of the sculpture slid off sideways, hitting the dead grass and leaves with a loud _**thump!**_ His chocolate eyes looked passed the lower half of the ruined stone, seeing two small orbs glowing brightly.

One was a brilliant oceanic blue-green while the other was a vivid neon orange color. Judai tilted his head to the side; what were those lights? He had never seen anything those colors before… Perhaps the Lady Andersen's eyes were close to that oceanic color, but not _nearly_ as bright.

"Hello…?" he asked again, having a feeling that there was someone there.

_**Crrack!**_ A step had been taken toward him from somewhere behind the broken statue; he could hear covered feet walk over dead leaves and make them crumble. His stance did not change, though anyone else could have been a little more cautious. A moment later, a boy with long, chin-length purple hair emerged from the black of the small forest. His bright oceanic eyes shined with an unknown power, an unknown sparkle; a dark amethyst jewel glimmered at the center of his forehead, giving off the same color as his hair. He had a calm smile on his face as he stood between the two halves of the sculpture.

Judai was taken aback by something about this boy, his eyes narrowing for a moment, "Who… Who or… _what_ are you?"

The young boy, who stood there in a violet purple T-shirt and black pants, merely allowed his smile to widen at him, "So… it seems that you can see me for what I truly am… You're good, Little One... _very_ good."

A second after he spoke, the jewel at his forehead dissolved into a long slit over where it once stood. The brunette watched inquiringly, only to jump back when the slit snapped open to reveal a third eye with a crimson red iris. The purple-haired boy's appearance vanished, and in his place stood a tall being with the colors black and pale rose pink covering its skin. Black spikes poked out of its shoulders, elbows and hips, making it look dangerous. Its wavy hair was spiked out in several directions, the right half of it snow white while the other was of the same dark purple it had all been a moment earlier. Two demonic wings were held wide open at its back, resembling the wings of a bat or a gargoyle. Lastly, one eye had remained its dazzling blue-green color while the other burned neon orange in the darkness.

Judai's wide chocolate eyes held fear so clearly in them that, even in the dark, it was visible to anyone who saw him. His body froze in its place; this was no person… this was a spirit! And a _bad_ one, too! His heartbeat increased as memories from his last encounter with Dark Spirits rolled back into his mind.

The malevolent-looking creature that stood before him smiled knowingly at him, **"Don't be afraid, Little One… I won't hurt you, I promise!"**

The familiar echo that followed the male spirit's feminine voice was almost something that the brunette missed hearing, but the sincerity that followed his voice was enough to calm him down some, "O-okay… but… wh-who are you?"

"**I am Yubel… a Fallen Angel."** He replied, closing his glowing eyes and inclining his head forward a little bit in emphasis.

"Fallen… Angel…?" Judai repeated, suddenly feeling a bit more cautious. He had heard something about Fallen Angels in class, but he could not remember what.

"**Yes."** Yubel answered, reopening his eyes and raising his head along with his outstretched arms. With this motion, several other ghostly spirits appeared around them, **"We are **_**all**_** Fallen Angels… and some day…"**

Judai looked around, watching as several of the Dark Spirits spun around his body. His hearing suddenly sharpened as his fear began to climb again; he tried to keep his attention off of the ghosts surrounding him and on the one speaking to him. When he heard the friendly Fallen Angel pause, he tore his chocolate hues away from an especially scary-looking spirit that flew near him in order to focus completely on him.

"**Some day, **_**you**_** will save us."**

Confusion passed over his features as Yubel's extended right hand started to glow. After a few moments, a small golden orb floated in the palm of his hand. The Fallen Angel pulled back that hand and swiftly swung it forward again, throwing the glowing sphere straight at the six-year-old.

Judai's eyes snapped open as wide as humanly possible as the orb hit his chest, entering it as if he were nothing but a puddle of water. For a second, nothing happened as he picked up his right hand and held it over the spot it had penetrated, but then he felt a pulsing pain strike through his entire body.

"A-AAGH!!" he cried aloud, falling to his knees and breathing heavily in an attempt to cancel the pain ripping him apart from the inside. All the light in his youthful eyes disappeared as his pupils grew small; he turned those almost soulless eyes on the Fallen Angel who had done this to him, "Wh-what _was_ that!?"

Yubel frowned as he noticed tears begin to fog the dismal chocolate hues of the young boy, feeling somewhat sympathetic. He drifted across the dead undergrowth, stopping in front of the whimpering child to bend down and wrap his arms around him. Pulling him into a warm embrace, his demonic wings enveloped them and concealed them in complete darkness.

Judai found the pain increasing to a point that he could no longer feel it, as if he were going numb. Suddenly, he could no longer feel warmth and felt a freezing chill crawl up his spine as he heard the wicked whisper of the Fallen Angel that held him.

"**One day… I will return to you,"** he said silently, **"and through my power, you will **_**awaken**_**… my little Haou."**

At the sound of the name _Haou_, the brunette felt a gigantic pulsation occur inside of his chest. His deathly eyes once again opened wide, but to the point that his back fully straightened and forced him to look up to the face of the darkened angel. However, he saw nothing… nothing but two orbs of neon orange and oceanic blue-green glowing visibly in the pitch darkness.

His eyes rolled backward as his eyelids dropped closed, his body falling limp. The Fallen Angel eventually evaporated into the air, leaving nothing behind that it had ever even been there besides the unconscious child and the broken statue.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

The night outside was a quiet and clear one, but it was much colder than usual. Mr. Daitokuji sat at the window of his room in the dormitory to the left of the main building. His black hair was held up in a high ponytail, but his long bangs still hung low by his face. His glasses had slipped to the tip of his nose, but he had not noticed. All he did was stare out into the black.

"**Kuri, kuri!!"** the voice of a spirit echoed in his head.

"Huh?" He turned around in his rolling chair, seeing the little newcomer's Spirit Partner appear before him in a frenzy of emotion, "What is it, Hane Kuriboh?"

"**Kuri! Kuri, kuri!!"** it cried, waving its arms around frantically before turning around and flying through the room's door.

_I think it wants me to follow…_ The blackette thought, getting out of his seat and hurrying to the door.

It did not take long for him to completely exit the building and catch up with the anxious winged fur ball. If it had gone all the way to find him, then something bad must have happened to its Human partner, Judai Yuki. This thought made the teacher's worry increase, making him run even faster.

Mr. Daitokuji came to a stop by the courtyard assigned for Takuma Saiou's class to have recess in, looking around for the spirit that had disappeared on him again, "Hane Kuriboh! Hane Kuriboh, where'd you go?"

"**KURI!!"**

Looking between two trees, he noticed a bright white wing poking out from behind it. Slowly walking over, he could hear Hane Kuriboh's desperate cries toward something lying on the ground. Once he had gotten passed the trees, he gasped at the sight; Judai was collapsed on the grass and did not seem to be moving.

"Judai!" he called, running to his side and picking him up bridal style, "Judai, wake up!"

The young brunette did not stir; all he did was lie there in his arms, breathing roughly. From the boy's condition, whatever had happened to him really did a number on him. The man turned around and ran to the main building's door, forcing it to open with his boot and effectively shattering the glass in the process. He ignored the loud sound of the material hitting the ground in tiny pieces in favor of dashing down the left hallway and passed the cafeteria to a spiral staircase.

Already used to it, he easily made his way up to the second floor and crashed through a door with a large red cross carved into it. The adult inside stopped what he was doing and immediately turned to look at Mr. Daitokuji, wondering what matter could be so urgent as to damage the door.

It was then that he saw the unconscious boy in the teacher's arms, realizing that the problem must have lain with him. Getting up from his rolling chair, his dark green bangs swayed into his eyes for a moment before he swept them back as he approached the blackette and who he assumed to be his next patient.

"Who's the kid and what happened?" His deep voice asked as he instantly placed the back of his hand over the sleeping brunette's forehead.

"His name is Judai Yuki and he's a new student. I don't know what happened; I just kind of found him this way in one of the courtyards…"

The male nurse sighed restlessly, "Well, that doesn't help me with what I'm supposed to cure him with… Did he show any signs of a cold? The flu? Maybe even a fever?"

Mr. Daitokuji looked up at the ceiling for a moment in thought, "Come to think of it, he _was_ a little red yesterday… and he lost his balance and nearly fell down the stairs."

Pulling his hand back from Judai's forehead, he shook his head out in the air, "… _okay_, he has a fever. Put him on the bed over there, the first on the left. I'll do what I can."

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

_**Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet!**_ A bird sang cheerily outside, flying by the windows of the Hospital Wing and into a nearby tree. Sunlight streamed into the huge room of several beds, illuminating the entire room in warmth. The sleeping brunette smiled at the feeling, his body heat having returned from what had happened to him the previous night. The sound of the bird, however, woke him up.

Chocolate brown eyes blinked open sleepily until he sat up in the bed and yawned, "What time is it…?"

He had not been expecting an answer, for he was asking himself aloud as a reminder to look at a clock.

"It is twelve twenty-seven!" a high-pitched voice squeaked somewhere to his left.

"Wah!!" Judai Yuki jumped, turning his head and flinched to his right a few inches.

"Eek!!" cried the voice from before, the blankets of the bed next to Judai's throwing themselves up and over a shivering lump.

He blinked at the bulge on the next bed before chuckling embarrassedly, "Hahaha, _gomen ne_! I was surprised; I thought I was the only one here!"

Through his peripheral vision, he noticed all of the empty beds in the large room, "Huh… I thought I was back in my room, too… Where are we?"

"W-we are in the Hospital part of the school…" The little voice stuttered from beneath the blankets.

Judai stared at the blankets, "Hey, c'mon! I am sorry for scaring you! Can you please come out? It is weird talking to a lump…"

A small giggle came from the other bed as the little boy under the sheets popped his head back out in the fresh air again, "Haha, you said 'lump!'"

"Yes… What about it?"

"That word sounds funny…"

The brunette thought it over in his head, his confused frown turning into a small grin and than breaking out into an all-out smile as he began to laugh, "Hahaha!! You are right! It _does_ sound funny!"

The two boys laughed for a few moments longer before Judai finally calmed down long enough to get a good look at the boy before him. He was a lot smaller than him… but seemed to be about the same age. He had huge light blue hair that almost seemed to eat the top of his head and he wore small glasses with circular lenses. Big grey eyes watched him with the same innocent and youthful spark he himself had as stout arms moved his body to sit up against his pillow again.

"So! What is your name?" Judai asked straightforwardly, smiling eagerly, "My name is Judai! Judai Yuki!"

"M-my name?" the other stammered, looking down at his hands nervously as he replied, "A-ahm… M-my name is Sho Marufuji."

"Ha! Sho, _ne_? Marufuji, too! That means you're Japanese like me, right??"

The little blunette nodded shyly, "Yes…"

"Oh, wow! I was scared all day yesterday! I thought I was the only Japanese kid in school! Especially with the way this one guy, _Santiago_, kept picking on me…" the brunette started saying with a frown on his face.

"Y-you, too?"

Judai blinked at the other boy, "Wait… Did he bully you, too?" _Come to think of it…_ "How did you wind up here in the Hospital? He did not put you here, did he?"

With all the questions he was throwing at Sho, he did not once think that it was too much. Sho was a kid, too, though, so it was not too bad.

"He did not hurt me… He just… kind of bothered an old owwie I got a while back and I had to come here."

"Aww… That sounds really bad! What kind of owwie did he—"

_**Creeeeak!**_ The door to the Hospital Wing fell open as a certain black-haired teacher came walking in, carrying two trays of food, one on top of the other. He peeked over to the brunette's bed and smiled.

"Ah! Judai, I'm glad you're awake!"

"Daitokuji-sensei!" Judai smiled, watching as the man approached his bed side and put the two trays down, "Are those for me??"

Mr. Daitokuji pulled a chair up to Judai's right, sitting down in the backwards seat as he picked one tray up and placed it in the six-year-old's lap, "No, Silly! One of them is for me! I know you can eat a lot, so I brought twice as much food as you got for breakfast yesterday. Since you slept through the morning, I was able to get one of the lunch ladies to make some brunch up for you."

The brunette stared hungrily down at the food, seeing six pieces of buttered toast piled up on top of each other to the side of a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon and beans. For some reason, there were two tortillas wrapped in a long napkin beneath the plate, but he did not know what they were for. He was too preoccupied with staring at the bread.

"Huh?" the man asked, noticing the student's gawking, "Oh! I remembered how you loved the toast from yesterday, so I brought you lots of it!"

"Daitokuji-sensei…" the boy began, turning to give the teacher the same sparkling happy look at he had day before, "_Arigotou_!!"

He picked up the top most piece of buttered toast and bit into it, chewing on it and feeling the butter melt onto his tongue. He could have _cried_ at how delicious it was to him at that moment. Having not made it to the cafeteria the previous night and missed breakfast that morning, his stomach was _that much_ hungrier than normal.

_**Rrrr…**_

Judai stopped his eating, blinking curiously as he turned his head to look over to the other bed. It seemed as though he had completely forgotten about his new friend Sho in favor of paying attention to his food. He could see the little blunette blush in embarrassment as he lightly slapped his stomach and silently scolded it for being so loud. All he did was laugh, though, getting the other's attention.

"Hey, Sho! Do you want to come eat some with us? There are lots!"

Sho merely stared at the brunette for a long time, but slowly, a smile formed on his face. Nodding, he slipped out of the bed and walked over to Judai's. The slightly older boy handed him a piece of toast, which Sho took happily.

"_Arigatou gozaimasu_!"

* * *

Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:

Aww... Happy Ending! XD! Well, for this Not-Chapter, at least.

GUESS WHAT, GUYS! In the next Not-Chapter, we'll be following along with Johan to see how he's handling not having Judai around! I wonder if it'll be as long as this Not-Chapter was... Haha, dunno, but from the ideas I got for it, I hope it'll be a little shorter. XD

DON'T FORGET TO DROP A REVIEW! :D! Reviews make me smile and make me proud to write this fic...

SPECIAL THANKS TO _KyoxSakiFan_, THOUGH! Because she's one of my favorite authoresses here and she kept e-mailing me to ask about this Not-Chapter. XD!

AND HAVE YOU GUYS READ "_Mistletoe Kiss_"?? She wrote that Christmas Spiritshipping fic and dedicated it to me! THAT'S AWESOME! X3!!! I want ot publicly thank her for that, so... yeah. I THANK HER FOR THAT! XD!

I'll post up the next Not-Chapter when I can, Folks! Until then, tell me what'cha thought of this one! Tell me what y'liked & what y'didn't like... -is actually expecting a lot of "I really, really hate Santiago!" comments- XD! Actually, I based him off of one of the kids at my high school. O.o;


	5. Gem Ruby : Discovery

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or any of the characters or card spirits that you recognize in this fic from the show (or the card game). She does, however, own a few characters, such as Jinsei Kisaki Andersen and Seikou Yuki.

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

ZOMFG!! This took SO long to write! X.X I hadn't started writing this chapter until December 29th! And I only _just_ finished writing and editing it right now, on January the 13th!

This Not-Chapter is a lot shorter than the last one. XD! There wasn't a lot that could happen, so this is about half as long as the last two chapters (the last two chapters were 25 pages and this one is only 16 pages).

Anyway, I finally got it up! Sorry for the wait! And for such a short Not-Chapter, too! ;-; I'm so, so sorry!

The next Not-Chapter will be a little more on the interesting side... because we're switching back to Judai at the academy for a while. 8D!

I'll quit hogging the attention now, so go ahead and read! X3

**

* * *

**

**: Gem **:** Ruby**** : **Discovery – _I Will Be Just Fine_

A low rumbling echoed in the dark gray clouds that were smeared across the bright blue sky of the morning. The shining sun could not even peek through a gap in the dull patches of fluff, shading the entire Andersen manor in a depressing light. The clean white house was temporarily a light silver color and the polished sapphire windows were slightly darker. A gentle, chilly breeze would blow over the land; it was enough to make anyone standing outside get goose bumps from the cold air hitting their warm skin.

Inside, the house was in no better a condition. Maids and butlers went on about their business, as usual, but something just was not right. The brightness of the house had dimmed and there was not much cheer to be seen. Even the lady of the house was in a bit of a slump, though it was only caused by her son refusing to leave his room. She had continually begged him to come out and eat with her, or just talk to her, but Johan Andersen would not comply. When she tried to enter his room, the door would be locked, and when she was able to unlock it, he quickly locked it again before she could open it.

Every time Jinsei Kisaki Andersen would give up and leave, Johan would cry loudly in his room. No one was allowed inside of his room, on order of his mother. If she could not see him, _no one_ could. The young blunette merely sobbed into his pillow with nobody to comfort him but the spirit of Ruby Carbuncle. Not even Ruby, however, could manage to cheer him up for more than three seconds before he began to bawl again.

It had been a week, a whole seven days, since his best friend Judai Yuki had been sent away to a religious boarding school. Johan was terribly lonely without him, staying in his dark, lightless room the entire time. He simply could not handle the brunette being away from him for so long! There was nothing to do in the big white house at the countryside, especially when there was nobody to spend time with. Sure, Johan had his older brother, Jim Cook Andersen, but it just was not the same. He loved his brother very much, but he knew that the black-haired boy would be leaving to go back to Australia with their grandfather again soon. Losing Judai during Jim's stay at the mansion had completely ruined him, rendering him unable to do anything but weep.

Lying on his bed with his stomach to the sheets and his head turned to his right, his dry emerald eyes stared straight at the huge window on the wall ahead of him. The sapphire blue curtains had been drawn, but they were not the thick ones that he normally used to shut out the light. These curtains were transparent, allowing him to half-see what was going on outside.

His shiny, tear-streaked cheeks were pale white and his nose was almost as red as Ruby's tail jewel; dry green hues began to dampen again as fresh tears spilled over his face. His shoulders shook uncontrollably as his heart started to race, eyes squinting closed as a deep pout formed on his lips. His nose tried to breathe in quickly to clear itself, but all it accomplished was telling him how stuffy it had gotten since he awoke several hours earlier. A small whimper came from his throat as he opened his mouth, turning his head to bury his face in his soaking wet pillow and hide his head behind a bush of brilliant teal blue hair. Bringing up his arms, he clenched his fists and banged them onto the empty space of the mattress he lay on.

"Ju-chan… Ju-chan, Ju-chan, Ju-chan!!!" he cried, his voice muffled by the material of the feathery pillow, "WHY!!?"

It had nearly become something routine for him over these passed several days to just remember everything that the two of them had gone through together and then cry out his name. What had the boy done to have something as serious as being sent away happen to him? He remembered his mother saying that Judai was just _too troublesome_, but Johan never thought he was like that… He never thought that at all. Sure, he was a little bit impulsive at times and he was not very cautious around delicate and breakable things, but he was still learning! They were both just kids! They did not know any better.

He pulled his head back from the pillow, getting up so that he sat on his legs and just stared down at the sopping wet object he had pressed his face into previously. A loud growling sound suddenly echoed off of the bare white walls of his bedroom, alerting him of a need that he continually ignored.

Johan had not been eating. In fact, whenever the butlers or maids brought him food and left it outside the door, it would go uneaten. He never once got up and opened the door, which meant that he had not eaten in seven days. Of course, he _did_ have water in the room… He and Judai had stolen a package of twenty-four water bottles and dragged them into his room, just in case they were too lazy to go to the kitchen for something to drink.

Just looking at the bottles of water, however, made him begin to tear up again. He remembered how, when they had finally gotten them to his room, Judai had smiled triumphantly and thrown his arms up into the air as he fell back onto his bed, saying _"That was so heavy! I cannot believe we could carry it together!"_

Sighing, he decided that maybe, just maybe, it was time to finally get out of his lonely sanctuary. People came daily to his door, trying to convince him to come out and get some fresh air. Even Ruby had tried to drag him out, but to no avail. Now, he was finally tired of it. He did not want anybody to see him cry, which was why he stayed in his room the whole time he had sobbed over his best friend's departure, but it had been too long. He needed to leave… He needed to see the Light.

Johan slid off the side of the bed, his bare feet coming into contact with the soft carpet floor. His toes wiggled against it, feeling its tiny bristles poke between them. His clothing held deep wrinkles and ruffles, his oversized, grey long-sleeved shirt hung off of one of his shoulders while its slightly frilled cuffs overlapped the tips of his fingers. Its length fell all the way down to his knees, making him look like he was wearing a very loose, very baggy dress with a pair of hardly visible black shorts beneath it. Picking up his right hand, he closed his eye and rubbed his sleeve over it some, trying to dry his cheeks and newly-forming tears.

Once he thought that he had made his face look presentable, he crossed the room to the wooden door, the exit to his place of comfort and his entrance to a world without his best friend. He shook his head abruptly, trying to forget about that fact. He had already gotten this far, so he was not about to turn back and start crying again. His ivory hand reached out to the doorknob, wrapping itself around its cold, golden metal before turning it and pulling the door back. He hopped backward as the door came open by itself, but looking downward, he watched as his older brother fell on his back into his room. Emerald hues blinked down at the blackette, wondering what he had been doing there.

Apparently, Jim Cook Andersen had been sitting Indian-style with his back to the blunette's bedroom door. With his back propped up against the wooden surface, he had lowered his head some and fallen asleep. Johan, having opened the door, had made the other fall back and wake up.

"Aack!" he cried, his folded arms and legs coming undone and flailing for a moment until the back of his head hit the carpet. His eyes had shut tightly from the impact, but when he felt that he was fine, he reopened his oceanic blue eyes, staring upward at the younger boy with a surprised look on his face, "Ah! Jo-kun! You finally decided to come out!"

Johan smiled weakly, nodding, "Y-yeah…"

Jim pulled his legs up straight and then pushed himself forward, getting up to his feet quickly. He dusted himself off for a moment before smiling sincerely at the other, "I'm so glad! The first thing we should do is get you somethin' to eat! Whenever somebody left you food, I'd come and eat it for you so they thought you were eatin' it."

The blunette just stared; what did that mean? Did that mean that his brother was selfish with food? It was a good thing he never opened the door for it, then; there would not have been anything there! His smile melted away, leaving his face blank as his eyes fell down to the carpet. Was he really ready to leave his room yet?

The blackette placed his hand over his brother's, pulling him out of the room and toward the staircase. Johan remembered the last time he had gone down the flight of stairs; it had been when Jim tried to sneak him outside to say goodbye to Judai… but they had been just a little too late. He yanked his hand out of his older brother's and walked to the edge of the second floor railing. Sitting down, he slid his legs between the bars and let them hang over the edge, his small hands wrapped around the bars to his sides. Green eyes gazed sadly down at the maids that walked across the first floor carrying things to other places; they looked almost comparable to ants, the way they simply rushed to their destination and zigzagged around each other to avoid collision.

The older boy frowned, watching Johan for a second before walking up beside him and looking down at his mess of teal-colored hair. His lips twitched into a friendly smile as he thought of something to try and make him cheer up.

"Okay, so a girl's sittin' in a restaurant, about to order, and she asks the waiter "Sir, is there spaghetti on the menu?" And then the waiter says "No, ma'am, I wiped it off!" Hahaha… ha… ha?" He laughed, but it easily died away when he got no reaction from his downcast little brother.

He took a deep breath and sighed, having known that, sooner or later, they were going to have to talk about it. Sitting down beside Johan, he too hung his legs over the ledge, leaning his head on the bar to his left side as he watched the maids, as well.

"Listen… I know it's been hard on you… but I know how you feel! It's a horrible feelin'… when someone so close to you is suddenly taken away…" Jim said, his soft voice laced with sympathy, "You're not the only one feelin' this way, either! There's me, Judai's kaa-san, and I'll even bet that those spirits are feelin' down about it, too."

Johan's eyes went wide in realization; that was right! The Elemental Hero spirits had a connection to Judai that almost rivaled their own, so they must have been feeling extremely depressed since he left. He bit his lip; how were the Crystal Beasts at that moment? Ruby Carbuncle had come in to check on him several times over the week, but he had not even acknowledged it some of the times. It had likely informed the others of his condition… and it was likely that they all knew why.

Jim noticed the reaction he finally got out of the other and continued, "With Judai gone, things really aren't the same around here… He really livened everythin' up, didn't he? But what happened has happened already… Nothin's gonna change that."

The blunette's eyebrows came together as he began to think deeply; he did not want to believe that there was nothing he could do to bring his best friend back. He wanted to believe that he could somehow convince his mother to bring him back. He wanted to somehow rescue his best friend from a place that he just _knew_ he was suffering in without Johan there to protect him.

In reality, there was spirits everywhere… Without Johan around, Judai was wide open for an attack by the Dark Spirits. This idea only made him feel worse; was his best friend even _alive_ anymore? There was no way for him to tell! He could feel a familiar stinging behind his eyeballs, signifying that he was ready to start crying again. His eyes shut tight, however, and he shook his head frantically; he could not start thinking about that… Judai was a strong person who could stand up to anything…

… Anything but an ambush by the Dark Spirits.

Johan clamped his mouth shut, gritting his teeth; _why_ was he thinking about this? Thinking about the absolute _worst_ possible things that could happen? Sure, he cared for his best friend with all his heart and soul, and he dearly wanted him back, but why would he not trust that he could take care on himself? Judai would have had to learn to fend for himself sooner or later, it just had to be sooner rather than later.

A door opened and closed somewhere behind them, indicating that someone was coming their way. Johan paid no attention to it, but Jim suddenly made a nervous look.

The sounds had come from their mother's private wing on the second floor. The blackette gulped loudly, lowering his head and shutting his eyes as if he were getting ready for a bomb to fall and explode. With the way their mother overreacted about everything, that was very probable to happen.

"Jimu?! JOHAN!!" Jinsei Kisaki Andersen cried from where she stood at the entrance to her quarters, her oceanic eyes wide in fear, "Get away from there before you fall and kill yourselves!! I don't want either of you to get hurt!"

_If you didn't want me to get hurt, why did you send him away?_ Johan asked her mentally, feeling that it would be completely useless to ask her aloud.

Jim hoisted up his boot-covered legs and held onto the bars to bring himself back up to his feet. He ran a hand through his short, spiky black hair as he turned to face his mother, a smile of embarrassment on his face. It took Johan a little bit longer to get up, but when he did, the older boy was able to hear his brother mumble something quietly that frightened him greatly.

"I wish I could just die right now…"

Dark, oceanic blue eyes were wide as they looked to Johan out the corner of their sockets, worry etching itself onto his face at what he heard. Did the seven-year-old even know what he was _saying_? Surely, he did not mean that! Was the loss of their friend really something _so_ bad to him? To the point that he could no longer live without him?

Jim was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard his mother begin to speak to him.

"Jimu, you should be setting a good example for your little brother! Don't be sitting at the edge of high places, and don't let your brother do that, either!"

"_H-hai, Kaa-sama_…" the older brother nodded in apology, his right hand behind his head.

"But, on the bright side! Jo-kun, I'm so happy that you—Jo-kun? Where'd you go?" the indigo-haired woman asked, blinking at the spot that the small blunette had previously been standing.

The black-haired boy turned around, scanning the area for his brother; Johan was nowhere to be found in his line of sight. He frowned in concern, wondering where the younger boy could have gone.

"Johan…"

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

The weather outside had not improved in the least since that morning. If anything, the wind had become slightly harsher. The limbs of the many trees in the house's backyard were nearly leafless at this point, all of them having been blown away into the distance or into the surprisingly still-intact bushes.

Johan Andersen did not care about the biting chill that ran over the exposed skin of his forearms, face and legs. He ignored the pain of sharp pebbles and prickles stabbing into his bare feet, keeping his determined eyes forward as he ran through the clearing of grass and into the formerly dense forest. Branches and bushes constantly got in his way, tripping him and trying to steer him off course, but he would not allow it. He _had_ to get to the secret spot… the spot that he shared with his best friend… and the spirits.

After ramming himself through several obstacles, he finally saw the familiar shine of the white angel statue through the darkness of the woods. The blunette pushed his foot off of the ground about twelve inches in front of the final barrier, crashing clear through it and falling roughly into the clearing of his destination. He bounced against the soft, untainted grass, feeling no pain from being out in the cold for so long. He must have gone numb somewhere along the way.

"**Jo-kun! **_**Daijoubu desuka**_**??"** a familiar female voice asked from somewhere in front of the boy, the feminine vibrations echoing off of the invisible force protecting the area from the ruthless weather, **"What are you doing out here on a day like this?"**

Johan put his hands onto the ground, pushing himself up to sit on his hands and knees. The question had puzzled him; why _had_ he gone there? All he knew was that he wanted to get away from the house… so his legs brought him there, naturally. Lifting his emerald eyes from the grass, he came face-to-face with concerned light purple eyes.

Amethyst Cat had appeared to him immediately when he made it to the clearing, but Topaz Tiger and Ruby Carbuncle were not far behind. As the pale pink-furred feline bent lower and curled itself beneath the young boy, she lifted her head up a little and licked his chin softly.

"**You're so **_**cold**_**! Hold on to me; I'll warm you up."**

The blunette managed a small smile as he let his strength leave him and he fell on top of the large cat's back. His arms wrapped around her smooth body as he rubbed his nose into the back of her neck. It had not been until he got close her that he realized just how frozen he had become. He chuckled grimly, wondering why he had not just run back to his room when his mother came out and saw him. It would have been a more practical plan than running out there into the chilly forest.

A low purr rumbled in the white tiger's throat as it slowly approached the two, sitting down to Johan's right and watching with concern barely visible in his light topaz eyes. While he would normally be outwardly jealous of Amethyst Cat giving all of her attention to Johan, he did not exhibit any sign of such behavior at the moment. His long, pearly white fangs hung out of his closed mouth, giving him the appearance of a wild but docile animal. When Johan's emerald eyes looked up to the large tiger, he brought up his right arm and reached out for him. Topaz Tiger stepped closer and lay down so that his head and left paw were on top of Amethyst Cat's back, allowing the young boy to lie close to the both of them and keep even warmer, thanks to the thicker fur of the tiger.

"**Rubi, rubi!"** chirped Ruby Carbuncle, gliding in the air until it landed in Johan's bush of teal blue hair.

The little purple animal curled up there, making a small nest on top of his head. The blunette could not help the small chuckle that escaped him at the small motion; the three Crystal Beasts had already managed to make him feel a little bit better about things, but… He frowned and lowered his eyes to stare at one of the many black stripes over Topaz Tiger's white body. It was times like these that he wished Judai were still around, because he would be able to cheer him up, no matter what. The Crystal Beasts could only keep him in a pleasant mood for so long before everything would just crash back down on him.

He sighed, pushing himself up to his feet and effectively getting the two feline beasts' attention in the process. Ruby blinked and hopped off of his head, watching him from in between Topaz and Amethyst.

Johan walked very slowly toward the bench, allowing his feet to hang in the air for a few seconds longer than usual. His right hand picked itself up, his middle and index fingers running themselves over the ruby red crystal on the necklace his best friend had given to him before leaving. From doing this, it was almost as if he had materialized out of thin air before him, sitting at the bench.

Light chocolate brown strands of hair would blow lightly in a nonexistent wind, his left hand reaching up to scratch at the orange patch atop his head. Bright brown eyes would suddenly look up at him and a smile would stretch over his pale lips.

"_Jo-kun!"_ the apparition exclaimed in excitement, standing up and giggling eagerly.

Johan's emerald hues widened with delight, a familiar light sparkling in them as he finally smiled the smile that had gone unseen for the past week. His bare feet moved faster, allowing him to run forth to the bench.

His smile melted away into a small, confused gap on his face as Judai Yuki disappeared from sight. Had he been seeing things? This question made him slap himself mentally; he could see _spirits_ clearly, of all things, and he asked himself _that_? He frowned, biting his lip firmly in an attempt to keep himself from crying again.

_Not again… I can't…_ He thought, already feeling the warm drops of water slide over the sides of his cheeks. His eyes tightened closed as he turned from his spot by the bench and felt something build up in his chest. An overwhelming feeling of anguish ran over him, uncontainable in his small body. After about two seconds of trying to control it, to keep it inside of him, he could no longer handle it.

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!" Johan yelled at the top of his lungs, slouching over slightly as he tried to completely empty his lungs of air with the one cry.

He pulled his right fist back and punched the angelic statue beside the bench, blinded by the emotions taking over his mind and actions. The force of the swing was enough to make pieces of dirt and dust stuck to the sculpture fall off, but it also made a sharp pain shoot through his knuckles. Flinching back, the blunette shook his poor hand out a little before lifting the sleeve of his shirt up so that he could see the damages. Nothing big happened; the top of his hand was just red with a small scrape of skin over his middle knuckle. He blew on it softly, hoping to soothe it somehow and make the stinging go away. As he did, however, his tears flowed down his face like twin, downhill rivers.

"Ju-chan…" he choked silently, sniffling a few times.

_**BOINK!**_

"Ouch!!" Johan cried as something came into contact with his head, bouncing off of the top of it and falling down to the ground.

His free left hand flew to his head, rubbing tenderly at the spot where he had been hit. He frowned; what had he done to deserve this? He lost his best friend, was seeing him everywhere, crying in public, and now things were falling out of the sky to hurt him!

_Seriously!_ He shouted in his mind, _What did I do!?_

Looking downward, his previous frustration vanished as he noticed what fell on him. It was a small, flat, cone-like gemstone. It was a dark cerulean blue color, but if the sun had been out for even a second that day, he might have been able to see that it shined in the brightest blue of a clear sunny day. He bent down, picking it up in his hand and rolling it over a few times. It was smooth and pretty, like the jewel on the necklace he wore.

Ruby Carbuncle floated quickly over to him as he stood back up straight, staring at the stone. As Topaz Tiger and Amethyst Cat made their way slightly slower toward the blunette, it was Ruby who began to call out loud.

"**Rubi! Rubii!!"** Its tail began to glow brilliantly, telling the other three in the surrounding area that it was calling for the other Crystal Beasts.

"**Look out below!!"** exclaimed a voice from up in the sky.

They all looked toward the sound, only to watch as the huge, brown-feathered eagle dove straight down toward them. Before his beak could ram into the grassy ground, he steered himself upward slightly so that he flew passed Johan and up to the top of the statue. Cobalt Eagle flapped his wings for a moment, slowing down and keeping himself airborne long enough to get his talons to perch on one of the stone angel's wings.

"**Whoo-hoo! What a rush!"**

Amethyst Cat hissed at the bird, **"Be more careful, Cobalt! You could've hurt Jo-kun!"**

Cobalt Eagle shrugged, moving his feathery wings like a hand opening and closing, **"Nag, nag, nag! Far be it from me to hurt **_**myself**_**! As long as Jo-kun comes out fine!"**

Just as the pink-colored cat was about to pounce on him, the soft _**clip-clop**_ping of their leader made the both of them fall silent and calm down. The pure white Pegasus shook his head as he stopped by Johan, Amber Mammoth and Emerald Tortoise off behind him.

"**That's enough, you two! We have something more important to talk about."** Sapphire Pegasus informed, his neck extended up as far as possible to keep his head raised and to keep the attention of the others.

"**And what might **_**that**_** be? Why Jo-kun came out today? I'd think it was obvious!"** Topaz Tiger snapped, the sharp, curved horn atop his head becoming a little more threatening as he took a step toward the winged horse.

It was then that Amber Mammoth came in between the two, protecting Sapphire, **"Calm down, Topaz. You'll understand when we start talking."**

The white tiger growled, backing up beside Amethyst Cat and sitting himself down. Amethyst merely giggled at his antics.

Sapphire Pegasus looked over to the bird settled on the sculpture, **"Cobalt, would you take a look at the stone in Jo-kun's hand?"**

Cobalt Eagle squawked as he hopped down to the bench, waddling to its edge so that he could be close to the young boy, at least enough to get a look at what Sapphire told him to see. Johan stepped a little closer, opening his hand to show the smooth gemstone that had fallen on his head. The eagle flapped his wings out excitedly, letting out a hearty laughter.

"**Well, what do y'know? It's my Spirit Gem!"**

The seven-year-old tilted his head to the side in confusion, a teal blue eyebrow raising, "Your Spirit _wha_?"

"**Ehh… Sapphire, **_**you**_** explain it! This stuff is a little complicated for me…"** Cobalt said, folding his wings and backing away a few steps.

The white horse walked up to Johan, the sapphire blue horn at the center of his forehead beginning to glow brightly. He lowered his head to the boy's occupied hand, the horn's glow transforming into a thick-chained silver bracelet. From the magic of the glow, the Cobalt Spirit Gem had become attached to the piece of jewelry like a charm. Johan stared at the item in his hand before looking up to Sapphire, expecting an explanation.

"**Jo-kun… What you have there is called a **_**'Spirit Bracelet.'**_** It's a special bracelet that you have to keep the magical Spirit Gems attached to."** Sapphire Pegasus explained, **"You see… as long as you have this bracelet, and if you find the other six Spirit Gems, then all of us can follow you wherever you go. If you leave this mansion, we can go with you. If Darkness threatens you in the house… we'll be **_**right there**_**."**

At his last words, Johan felt his heart clench; he was reminding him of what happened the night before Judai was sent away. The Dark Spirits had gone after him when the Light could no longer protect him. This memory angered him; he wanted to get revenge on the Dark Ones that scared his best friend nearly to death!

Sapphire noticed the feelings in his eyes, though his face was blank. He nudged his open hand with his long nose, snapping him back into reality.

"**It'll be hard to find them all, because not even **_**we**_** know where they are. Sooner or later, they'll all just show up to you."**

"Right." The blunette nodded, understanding how the Spirit Gems worked. He slipped the bracelet onto his left wrist and watched it for a moment before sighing, "I should probably go back inside now…"

"**I thought you didn't want to go back… Isn't it too soon?"** Amethyst Cat whined, rubbing her head against his shoulder.

Johan picked up his right hand and patted her gently on the head, "It is, but… it really is cold out here, even if the wind doesn't blow in this area. I just hope that I don't get blown away like the last time the weather got this bad."

"**Not to worry, Jo-kun!"** Cobalt Eagle called, gliding over to his side, **"Since you've got my Spirit Gem, I can follow you to the house now! I'll make sure the wind doesn't touch you on the way there."**

"_Honto_?" he smiled, earning a nod in reply, "_Arigotou gozaimasu_, Cobalt!"

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

It had been odd on the walk back to the Andersen manor from the woods. Johan could see the wind blowing hastily at everything around him, like the trees, grass, bushes and everything outside, but he never felt so much as the chill he had gotten earlier when he exited the huge house. With Cobalt Eagle waddling along beside him, he was protected from the evil winds until he got inside of the house. That was when the large bird winked at him and turned into an odd, sky blue energy beam that disappeared into the Cobalt Spirit Gem on his Spirit Bracelet.

He raised his wrist and stared at the charm as it swung in place calmly, wondering how long it would be until he found the other stones. It would probably take a long time, judging from how Sapphire Pegasus had spoken about it. As for how long _'a long time'_ was, he could only guess that it ranged from days to years. Sighing deeply at the thought, he started walking down the hallway towards the center of the first floor. Without much else in mind to do, he figured that he would just head on back to his room and take a nap. Being outside was exhausting, and so was all the emotional stress that still hung over him like a black cloud of bad luck. Once he reached the corner, he turned at a 90 degree angle to walk down the hallway to his right, but he was met with a scurrying maid.

_**CRASH!**_

"Oww…" he flinched, stumbling backwards a few steps in an attempt to keep himself from completely falling.

"Eep! Jo-kun, _gomen ne_! I didn't hurt you, did I?" the caring, feminine voice of his favorite maid asked him.

The blunette raised his gaze from the floor to look into worried honey golden eyes, but the worry he saw there made him smile weakly as he shook his head quickly, "No, no! I'm fine, Seikou-san! I just wasn't watching where I was going…"

The older woman smiled down at him, picking up her right hand to show a folded piece of computer paper in it, "Y'know… I was actually looking for you! You'll never guess what I just got in the mail today!"

He tilted his head curiously, blinking at her, "What is it?"

She tossed her elbow-length orange hair over her shoulder as she bent down to his level and opened it, "It's a letter from the teacher that's watching over Judai at school. Daitokuji-san says that he will send me a letter every week or every month to tell me how he's doing at Saint Fordé's."

Johan froze; someone was going to tell them how his best friend was doing? His lips twitched into a wide smile as his excitement built up, making him begin to bounce up and down on the tips of his toes.

"Tell me, tell me! How's he doing? Is he okay? He hasn't died, has he?" Several questions ran out of his mouth without any filter to stop them, but it was when Seikou Yuki raised her hand to quiet him that he fell silent and watched her intently.

Honey eyes scanned over the letter as she began to read aloud, "It says here…

"_Dear Seikou Yuki,_

_Judai is doing fine here at Saint Fordé's, so there's no need to worry. His first day wasn't exactly the best, since many of the older students found him odd and bad luck seemed to stick to him like the food that fell off of his plate that morning. By the night of his first day, we found out that he had a fever, but our school nurse was able to cure him right up!_

_His bad luck only lasted the one day, because after that, he was able to make a few friends with some of the more promising students here, such as one of our star third graders, Zane Truesdale. Thankfully, just knowing Zane is a plus to Judai, because all of the bullies who picked on him his first day have all left him alone since._

_His grades are about average… So he's fine for the moment in that department. All of his teachers say that he's a delight to have in the classroom. You've raised a fine young boy."_

Johan's smile weakened slightly upon hearing that Judai had made friends at his new school; he knew that he should be happy for his best friend, and he was, but… it sort of made him feel a little bit left out. A small shadow in his heart began to nag at him, saying _'He's replaced me with his new friends.'_ He shook his head frantically, trying to rid his mind of such a thought. Judai would never do that…

… would he?

Seikou must have noticed the uncomfortable look on the young blunette's face, because she grinned slightly as she went on to speak, "It also says here that he really misses me and the Andersen house, but he _especially_ misses his best friend Jo-kun."

At the sound of his nickname, his lowered head shot up to look at her face, only to see that smile of hers, "_H-honto_? Does it really say that?"

The orange-haired lady nodded, "It sure does! Daitokuji-san also mentions in this letter about how Judai just can't stop talking about you!"

Johan's cheeks reddened in a light blush as a happy tingling filled his heart; Judai missed him! He had not forgotten about him! He was even telling his _new_ friends about him! If he could have been any happier, the blunette might have exploded, bouncing all over the place and screaming about how happy he was. The young boy, however, was able to contain all but the bright smile that had curled on his face.

He bowed in thanks to her, "_Arigotou gozaimasu_, Seikou-san!"

With that, he turned around and sped down the hallway he had planned to go through before. Seikou Yuki turned and watched him go, smiling all the while. She believed that she had just brightened the entire household by only sharing the one letter with the young boy; everything would get better, she could feel it.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Bare feet bounded painfully up the staircase, footsteps thudding loudly over the carpeted, elevating steps. The dazzling smile on his face said that he did not feel it, however, as he ran up to the second floor. His emerald green eyes had regained their previous youthful sparkle, illuminating the dim hallways of the Andersen manor. He dashed for the door that would lead him back into his room, but it was then that a twinkle of light was caught at the corner of his eye.

Johan Andersen stopped directly in front of his bedroom door, turning his head to look toward the long window at the far end of the corridor. A clearly visible beam of sunlight had shown itself from behind the black clouds and was shining down on the secret spot in the woods. Curious, he approached the windowsill, placing his small hands over it as he looked up to the sky. His smile brightened to a heavenly extent at what he saw.

A beautiful rainbow had somehow broken through the darkness over the house, making the ominous clouds slowly begin to dissipate. One of the world's natural wonders stood before his very eyes and he truly felt blessed at the mere sight of it. It had to have been a sign… a sign from God that everything was going to be okay. Judai would be fine on his own at Saint Fordé's Catholic Academy and would continue to think about him.

And Johan would also be alright. He would be able to handle being there at the Andersen house by himself, and he would never forget about his dearly beloved best friend. In his heart, he knew that he would always care for Judai, no matter how much time they spent away from one another.

Emerald hues stared directly up at the wondrous, multicolored arc in the sky, studying every shade that glittered prettily. There were seven colors, he counted, and they all glowed like the gems on the bodies of the Crystal Beasts. It was funny how there were seven of them and seven colors painted on the rainbow. What a coincidence!

Just as quickly as it had appeared, however, it faded away, leaving behind sparkles of light that rained down on the forest behind his house. The young blunette turned around and leaned his lower back against the windowsill, his left hand gripping it firmly as the familiar flame of determination lit itself in his eyes. His right hand went to the ruby charm on his necklace as he looked down at its smooth, shiny surface.

"I'll definitely find you again, Ju-chan… _some_ day."

* * *

Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:

Alright, there it is! A short Not-Chapter to show what Johan's been up to! A stubborn little kid, isn't he? All the drama... and he's only a little kid. D:

Like I mentioned before, the next Not-Chapter will star Judai again and we'll just follow him around as he makes some more friends! And the girls pop in for a visit, too!

How? You'll have to wait to read the next chapter to find out! ;D

But right now, give me your thoughts! I know it was short, I got that already, but what'd y'all think of it? Review, pwease? XP


	6. Element Light : Delight

Disclaimer: Emerald Twin Blade does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or any of the characters from the show that appear in this fanfiction. She does, however, own a handful of Custom Characters, but a new character that shows up in this Not-Chapter named Charity belongs to **Inufan078**.

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

HOLY MOTHER OF ALL THING CHEESE! ... sorry for the super long wait, Guys! It took me 7 months to finally finish (at least 6 of those months spent TOTALLY ignoring writing in general), but here it finally is!

Now that my obsession with Spiritshipping and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX has been reignited, I'm definitely going to get a move on this story! Severed Wings of the Angels is a story that I'm so proud of, and a story that is never boring, just constantly puzzling... but the fun kind of puzzle! Even if I stop writing this story for a long time, I'll always come back to it!

... SPECIAL THANKS goes to **Aqua - A Mermaid Water Spirit**, who PMed me about a month or so ago to remind me that this fic needed an update! Thanks a lot, Aqua!

Alright, check out what took me a while to write, Everybody! It's gonna suck! LOL! XD

* * *

**: Element : Light** :Delight – _A New Circle of Friends_

… _**Judai…**_

The name echoed in the dense, darkening gold clouds of the lonesome abyss. The six-year-old's small body floated at the center of the spherical prison of a quickly dissolving Heaven. He stirred at the sound of his name being called, but his serene, sleeping face took on a small frown.

_**Judai…**_

He crinkled his nose, attempting to keep himself asleep. It was so comfortable… He did not want to leave behind such a pleasant feeling in favor of waking up to a possibly uninviting world called Reality.

_**Haou-chan…**_

That had done it; his heart stopped as the wicked whisper rang in his ears. Chocolate brown eyes snapped open, fear completely evident in them as they faded to a neon yellow color. There was absolutely no light reflecting in those frightened, unblinking hues. The golden clouds that had surrounded him died away, leaving nothing behind to indicate they had ever been there. Complete Darkness had engulfed him, trapping him in place.

Would he be left there in Darkness forever? He had no control over his limbs and, though he knew his eyes were open, could not see anything. It was as if a strong force was holding him down, rendering him motionless. Why was he there? What had he done to deserve this? To deserve to freeze to death in Darkness?

"… _-chan! …"_

What was that sound? He wanted to ask himself this, but he could not seem to come up with a single thought without it shattering to millions of tiny pieces in his mind. His mouth would not open either, and, even if it could, he doubted that he could form a coherent word in his current state.

"… _Ju-chan!"_

_Ju-chan? Who called me that…?_ He was finally able to think, trying to figure out who could be calling for him in a place like this.

As far as he knew, no one at the school called him by that cute little nickname; however, he could not pin the voice to one of the many women who called him Ju-chan back at the Andersen mansion, either. In that case, the only person left was…

"_Ju-chan! Doko ni imasuka?! Jyuu-chaan!!"_

"Jo-kun!" He felt his eyes finally slide close, only to reopen and reveal the chocolate brown ones that he had been born with, "Jo-kun!! _Watashi wa koko ni imasu_!"

"_Ju-chan!!"_ called the voice of his best friend, his figure beginning to materialize in the Darkness above the brunette.

As he stared upward, he could make out a pair of brilliant emerald green eyes revealing themselves and pushing away the shadows that kept him isolated. A gentle smile of relief had settled upon the lips of the ivory angel that slowly floated down in his direction, dark teal hair swaying in his descent.

That smile made him want to cry, feeling as though the part of his heart that had been ripped and torn to pieces had been put back together and been returned to its rightful place. From the way his vision began to blur, he knew that he was going to cry… not of sadness, but of happiness. He had come back to him…

The blue-haired angel held his arms open, reaching down toward him.

There was nothing that he wanted to do more than to just be caught in the warm embrace of his best friend, but as he regained control of his limbs, something happened. The Darkness that had been slowly dissipating completely vanished, as did his protective sphere of golden clouds. The angel was also beginning to disappear.

His chocolate eyes went wide at this realization, but he still threw his arms out in front of him in hopes of catching the other's hands, "Jo-kun! Jo-kun!!"

Just as their fingers were about to touch, everything went white.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

_**KNOCK! KNOCK!! KNOCK!!!**_

"Aniki! Aniki!!" a small, high-pitched voice called urgently from the other side of the wooden door.

_**THUD!**_

"Aagh!!" Judai Yuki grunted loudly as he suddenly fell off of his bed and hit the side of his head on the carpet floor.

"Aniki, open the door! Are you alright??"

The six-year-old boy pulled himself up into a sitting position, bringing his left hand up to lightly rub over the small, reddening bump _just_ above his ear. One chocolate brown eye winced closed at the ache that resonated from the one spot, dropping his hand away from it as if he had just been burned. He finally sighed deeply and put his left hand up on the bed, pushing himself up to his feet.

"I am alright, Sho! I just fell off the bed…" He trailed off as he straightened his maroon red pajamas from the fall.

He looked over the single bed, noticing that all of the sheets had somehow migrated to the opposite side of the bed from where he fell. There seemed to be a medium-sized lump underneath them. Most people would think that it was just a pile of blankets; Judai, however, was not one of those people.

"Hane Kuriboh, what in the world?!" The brunette growled, grabbing the top of the sheets and yanking them back to reveal a sleeping brown fur ball with little white wings on its back.

It was still asleep, and from the looks of it, Judai would be unable to awaken it for a while. Rolling his eyes, he threw the covers back over the little spirit before walking over to the door. A yawn made him open his mouth up wide as he approached it, turning the doorknob and pulling it open.

"Aniki!! _Daijoubu desuka_?!" shouted the shorter six-year-old who stood outside the door with his eyes clamped shut and his fist still knocking at the imaginary door.

Since Judai had opened the door and stepped forward before he realized that blunette had not noticed the disappearance of the door, he was being continually pounded on the forehead with the little boy's right hand. The way he hit the taller boy, however, was comparable to someone hitting him with a stuffed animal. He could not help chuckling, which finally woke the other from his trance.

"Eh? Oh, Aniki!" Sho Marufuji smiled, opening his light grey eyes to look up at his best friend, but as he lowered his arm, he paled and frowned, "O-oh, my! _G-gomen nasai_!"

The huge bush of light turquoise hair suddenly bowed forward in apology, but all Judai could do was laugh and shake his head.

"_Nan demo nai yo_! You are not strong enough to hurt me."

When Sho stood back up straight, he pouted at him, "That is not nice!"

Again, the brunette laughed, "It is true, though! Anyway, could you wait for a minute? I need to change."

"Okay…"

With that, Judai closed the door and retreated to one of the drawers at the dresser, pulling out was looked like a maroon red shirt that had a turtleneck collar. It had white linings and the school's signature emblem of an embroidered white rose with the words "_St. Fordé_" stitched below it in Monotype Corsiva font at the left breast. He knew he would have to wear this particular top that day because he had seen Sho wear the very same one, but also because it was a Sunday.

Every Friday at Saint Fordé's Catholic Academy for Boys, the entire school's population was expected to go to the large cathedral at the center of the school's property. There was always a special mass on Friday and an _especially_ special one on Sundays. All of the students had to wear their school uniform on these days, but each type of student had a different uniform.

The students who were at the top of their class were assigned to wear a completely white top that had light blue linings and the emblem of a red rose at their left breast. The ones that had the potential to be top of the class and were over the average of the class also wore completely white tops, but they had red linings with the same red rose. The uniform for the students who could hardly keep an acceptable average or were below average all wore the completely maroon uniform that had snow white linings, which was the exact outfit Judai and Sho had.

Judai sighed as he pulled off his pajama top and began to pull on the uniform; it had already been almost a month since he was sent there from the Andersen manor, but he still could not forget anything about it. He remembered his kind mother, the fun he would have with the Elemental Heroes, the evil rich lady who sent him away… but the one that he remembered the most was his absolute best friend.

"Jo-kun…" He whispered to himself, straightening the front of the uniform after buttoning it up to his neck.

It had already been so long, but he wondered what the other could be up to. He knew that Mr. Daitokuji had been sending letters to his mother at that mansion, but they never received any replies. They did not know why, but Judai would always tell himself that his mother was probably too busy to write back.

"Aniki, _hayaku shite kudasai_! We need _some_ time to eat breakfast before we go to mass!" Sho called over the door, anxiety in his voice.

The brunette's frown broke into a grin at the other boy's concern; Sho was always a big worrywart and it was easy to freak him out. However, it had not taken very long for the two of them to become great friends when they met in the infirmary. They were both Japanese and spoke it just as well as they spoke English, but they had a lot of trouble trying to cope with the many Spanish speakers of the school.

The first day he had gone to class, he had heard from the bully called Santiago that Saint Fordé's was simply a bilingual school, but was later told otherwise by none other than Mr. Daitokuji himself that the academy took students of all cultures and languages. In actuality, there were about as many Japanese speakers as there were Spanish, and even French ones, too! This fact had amazed Judai when he found out. Though the school demonstrated a wonderful mix of cultures, that did not mean that there was no racism, as Santiago Aguilar so obviously displayed when Judai joined their mostly Mexican and Anglo class. As time went on, however, there were more Japanese boys entering that particular class, which angered the seven-year-old bully.

Once the boy had finally pulled on a pair of clean black slacks, he looked in the mirror above the dresser and checked his hair. It looked like it always did: messy brown hair with a slightly messier patch of burnt orange at the top. His grin widened; _perfect_.

"Alright, Sho! I am ready!" he said aloud as he approached the door.

Sho opened it for him as he turned out the light and exited, locking the door behind him before running along beside the scurrying blunette.

"Why are we running?" The brunette asked, confused once they had to slow down, but still hurry down the spiral staircase.

"I do not want the line to get any longer than it already has!" The younger boy explained, crying tears of hope, "Hopefully, there will still be some food left for us!"

The cafeteria lacking enough food for all of its hundreds of students? Judai greatly doubted such a thing, but it _was_ food they were talking about, so he picked up his pace a little and wound up running ahead of Sho. He swung open the glass door that served as the entrance and exit to the building, dashing outside and nearly leaving the other behind.

"Aniki!! _Ch-chotto matteo_!" Sho exclaimed, already beginning to pant tiredly.

"C'mon, Sho! We're almost there!" Judai pointed out as he slowed down near their class's designated courtyard.

It had not been a long time since the two of them first met, but the young Marufuji boy had gotten into the habit of calling him "_Aniki_," which is the Japanese translation for "_Big Bro_." Judai really did not understand why he called him this, but it did not bother him, so he let it slide. To him, it meant that Sho believed that he was his best friend, but Judai could not let himself say the same about the other. He held firmly to the fact that Jo-kun was his absolute best friend, so nobody else could ever take his place. The small blunette would have to remain nothing more than a simple friend to him.

Once the two finally reached the main building, the brunette burst through the door, leaving it open for the smaller boy to follow. His lips twitched into a small smile as he looked out the corner of his eye; the cafeteria line was not _nearly_ as long as Sho had made him believe it was. The clear glass windows reflected some light off of them, blinding the little blunette by shining onto his small pair of round glasses.

"A-aah!! The light!! It burns! It burns—AAH!" Sho cried as his hands immediately flew to cover his eyes, but in shading himself from the light, he tripped over his own feet and fell forward onto the hard tile floor, "A-aah… Aniki… g-go on without me…"

Judai skid to a stop, turning to look to his friend with a worried look, "What? I am not going to leave you here and go eat! C'mon, Sho, get up!"

He walked up to the younger boy, taking his left elbow into his right hand and pulling him up to stand. Sho, who had almost began to cry, wiped at his tears and smiled in gratitude. In his mind, he told himself to remember to thank God for sending him such a wonderful friend; anyone else would have just left him behind.

Judai tilted his head to the side, raising an eyebrow and grinning, "What are you staring at me for? If we stand here all day, we will not eat _or_ go to the mass!"

Sho shook his head, clearing his thoughts and laughing embarrassedly, "A-ah! _Gomen ne_… _demo_..."

The brunette blinked, his grin melting away as curiosity sparked in his eyes.

"Aniki… _arigatou_." The small boy said shyly.

Although Judai did not understand why he was being thanked, he did not ask. All he did was laugh before taking the other's hand and pulling him into the cafeteria.

The cafeteria was about the size of a large mall's food court, seating over a thousand students at once on a busy day. Its warm maroon red walls boxed in the many metal rectangular and circular tables; several silver picture frames took up the empty space of the dark barriers, all filled with photos of students and teachers at events of the years previous. Considering the hour visible on one of four silver, digital wall clocks in the huge room, it was not so surprising to see about half of the cafeteria's tables and chairs occupied by some of the younger students of the school. The older students had to go to classes around 8 to 9:15 AM, so they usually had breakfast at 6 or 7 in the morning.

The two six-year-olds scurried to the end of the breakfast line, chatting to each other about how short it had been and that Sho should not exaggerate things that he does not know for sure. Looking passed the three children ahead of them, they looked directly at the rows of different breakfast food. Judai's mouth began to water at the mere sight of it all, his eyes growing wide as he daydreamed about eating it all. Sho, who stood behind him in line, noticed the trance he had fallen into and walked ahead of him.

"Aniki, snap out of it! It is our turn!"

That was enough to make the brunette snap back to reality; the two took a clean tray each and walked down the line. A few lunch workers standing on the other side of the food-filled counters smiled at them, asking them if they would like something in their area. Judai, however, had something special in mind for that day.

As Sho stopped to ask a rather tall man for a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon, Judai sped off toward the end of the food counter, sliding to a stop in front of several platters of different flavored pancakes. His eyes took on a rather focused stare at them all; he gulped as his chocolate eyes darted from one to another, to another, to another. After a few seconds, he let out a quiet whine and folded his arms over his chest, the tray lying across the edge of the counter.

"Aww… which kind should I get?"

A _very_ feminine giggle occurred on the other side of the pancake counter, followed by a, "Would you like one or two of each?"

"Wow!! You mean I can really do that!?" Judai asked with the happiest incredulity on earth, looking up at the source of the voice. His eyes went wide in surprise at what he saw, his wide smile weakening some, "Whoa! You are a lady!"

The short, round old woman laughed aloud, her left hand covering over her mouth in an attempt to hide her amusement. She did not seem to be _extremely_ old, but there were a few wrinkles visible beside her eyes and around her mouth. She wore a light pink, button-up work shirt with white suspenders connecting to her maroon red dress pants. Small black glasses hung near the tip of her nose, and a thin red ribbon was tied around her collar into a loose bow.

Dark brown eyes reopened after her laughter concluded, "Well, I can definitely say that you're the first boy to be so straightforward about it! Yes, I am a lady… and yes, you can really do that!"

The young boy was about to go on and ask why she was there, when the principal had gone so far as to make sure that _every_ living person on the school grounds was male, but the mentioning of food was enough to redirect his attention completely. He reached forward and picked up his tray, holding it out to the woman.

"Fill 'er up, please!"

The faded brown-haired lady chuckled about how easily his interest was diverted as she took a clean plate from behind the counter and, using a spatula, piled two of each of the seven different flavored pancakes onto it. Judai's eyes were watching hungrily as they were stacked onto the white plate, mumbling all of their flavor names eagerly.

"Buttermilk, blueberry, banana nut, strawberry, chocolate chip, peanut butter, and… Ne, _Obaa-san_, what kind is that one?"

She froze the moment she heard what he called her, eyes wide in surprise like she had been caught red-handed with something. The boy was about to ask her if something was wrong, but Sho entered the conversation.

"Aniki! It's not nice to call ladies old!" He scolded, wagging his finger at the brunette and holding onto his tray with his left hand. He quickly approached the counter and put his tray down on it, bowing in apology to the woman, "_Gomen nasai_… He does not know how to greet a lady."

All the woman did was smile thoughtfully at them, shaking her head and placing the unknown-flavored pancakes on top of the other twelve sitting on the plate in her hand. She then held it out to Judai, a fond look in her eyes.

"It's quite alright… He can call me Obaa-san if he wants to, but my name is Tome."

Judai blinked at her, taking the pancakes unconsciously and staring at her. Her name was Tome? His mother had told him to look for her once he got there to the academy, but he was not able to hear what this old woman was to him or his mother. He shrugged to himself, smiling happily as he placed the plate on his tray.

"_Arigatou gozaimasu_, Obaa-san!"

The smaller boy pouted, "She is _Tome-san_, Aniki! _To-me-san_!"

The brunette shrugged, closing his eyes and tilting his head off to the right in thought, "But she said I could call her Obaa-san…"

As the two went on fighting about it, Tome could not help but smile and giggle at them.

_If only they knew…_ she thought, but shrugged, _It's probably better that they don't, though._ She clapped her hands together, successfully gaining their attention, "I've already said that it's alright, so why don't you two just stop fighting and go eat your breakfast? The mass is going to start soon, don't you know?"

"Aah!! I almost forgot! Aniki!!" Sho piped, suddenly standing straight up.

"Yeah, let's go! Thanks again!!" Judai called behind him as the two scurried off to find a table to sit at.

Tome chuckled as she watched him go, but turned to her right when she felt someone approach her. One of the male lunch workers nearest to her had come closer, a hand behind his hairnet-covered head as he stared at her with an eyebrow raised.

"Tome-san… do you know that the cost of the food he eats comes out of his account?"

Her smile widened at this, "Hohoho… I know, Dear! And it doesn't matter! From now on, take Judai Yuki's food expenses out of _my_ paycheck." The surprised look on the man's face spurred her to continue with a short explanation that made her turn to look over at the young boy again, "He's my grandson, after all…"

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

"Hey, Sho? Where are we going to sit?" Judai asked, following behind the bush of light blue hair. He looked down at his tray, licking his lips; the pancakes looked so delicious! He blinked, however, noticing something, _Ah! I forgot something to drink!_ "Hold on a second! I forgot to grab some milk!"

He spun on his heel and hurried back to the food counters. The Marufuji boy cast a glance over his shoulder to his best friend, but then stopped where he stood and scanned the cafeteria's tables and chairs. Where could they _not_ sit? The cafeteria was half empty, and the rest of its population was occupied by students around their age. His light grey eyes stopped when they spotted a familiar bush of straight, dark teal hair. An excited smile curled on his lips, making them open as he called out.

"Zane!!"

The older boy who he had called to did not even acknowledge that he was heard; all he did was eat the food placed in front of him. Unfazed by such, Sho scurried up to him, coming up to his right side with his arms straightened completely, his tray held in a low and playful fashion. The teal hues of the other boy looked at the younger out the corner of his eye, but he jumped slightly in surprise. His blank expression changed to light shock as he turned his head and looked down at what Sho had on his tray.

Sho followed Zane's eyes, looking down to his breakfast; why was he looking at his food like that? He then looked over to what the other had chosen to eat that morning and smiled at what he saw.

"Haha… It looks like we have similar taste in food! What a coincidence!" he chuckled cheerily, moving further to his side and setting his tray down on the table.

The third grader closed his eyes as a light pink blush dusted his cheeks, completely ignoring the inner reason as to why it could _not_ be an accident that they got the same thing. He poked a piece of his scrambled eggs and a torn piece of bacon with his fork before biting into it, giving himself an excuse to stay silent.

"Sho! Hey, Sho!!" called Judai's voice.

The light turquoise-haired boy turned at a ninety degree angle and waved his right arm visibly, "Over here, Judai! We are going to sit with Zane today!!"

Judai rushed over to the table with a wide smile on his face, sitting himself down to Sho's right, who was sitting to Zane's right side. Upon letting his tray down onto the table, his plastic knife and fork were already in hand as his eyes were practically _glued_ to the pile of fourteen pancakes in front of him. His mouth hung open, drool sliding down his chin.

Sho sat down, as well, but instead of tucking into his meal, he looked over to his best friend and frowned, "Aniki, you are not _really_ going to eat all that, are you?"

When there came no reply, Zane Truesdale found it necessary to speak on the entranced brunette's behalf, "Of course, he is. He wouldn't have gotten it all if he didn't plan to."

The dark teal-haired boy took up another piece of his food, but before eating it, he looked over to Judai and leaned his chin into his left hand. His elbow sat at the edge of the table, holding his face in place; teal eyes watching the other in amusement.

"Hey, Judai. I'd advise you to _not_ eat the two pancakes on top of that stack."

Judai stopped staring at his food and looked over to Zane in confusion, "What does _adovaizu _mean?"

"It's _advise_. And it basically means 'I wouldn't do that if I were you.'" Zane replied instantly, having expected to be asked the definition. It had only been a little under a month since they met and the third grader was _already_ used to the other's antics.

"Why not?"

He stared at the genuinely curious look on the brunette's face, unable to stop the tiny smile that graced his lips and cracked his normally indifferent mask, "Aah… You won't like them. Trust me."

"Hmm…" Judai thought about it for a moment, looking from the teal-haired boy to his food and back three times before just keep his eyes on the food. Should he listen to him?

_Zane is like… an older version of Jo-kun._ He thought, feeling a familiar warmth in his cheeks when he looked back up to the third grader. The older had already closed his eyes again and continued eating his food in silence, seemingly listening to what Sho was talking about. The brunette was caught in his thoughts, however, and could not hear a word his little friend was saying.

Ever since he first met Zane Truesdale, he thought that he resembled his best friend. It did not take him long to realize _why_, though, because it was obvious that their hair color was the same. Another thing they had in common was being able to tell when he did not understand something and helping or correcting him. That was one of the things Judai had liked most about Jo-kun… so, it was not surprising that he had taken a liking to somebody who was similar.

After about two minutes of staring, Zane became outwardly aware that Judai was looking at him. Knowing teal eyes narrowed amusedly as they locked with spellbound chocolate ones, no trace of a smile on his lips.

"Is something wrong, Judai?"

The brunette awoke from his thoughts abruptly, eyes going wide as embarrassment stung his cheeks bright red. In an attempt to cover up what he had been doing previously, he quickly dug into the two pancakes at the top of his plate, taking a large piece and shoving it into his mouth. His teeth pulled themselves together to chew on what had been expected to be chewy, but he was shocked when he felt and heard a loud _**CRUNCH!**_ He froze in place, all the color draining from his face as some sort of juice slid from whatever had been crushed by his teeth. His eye began to twitch in distaste and a muffled scream rumbled in his throat, his mouth clamped shut. He did not want to spit out what ever was in his mouth onto his stack of other, perfectly good pancakes, and he did not want to get in trouble for throwing, or in this case throwing _up_, food on the floor again.

Sho noticed the expression on his best friend's face and began to panic, looking around in all directions for something that could help. Zane had a hard time keeping a straight face, though. Eventually, he decided that the younger boy had suffered enough and shoved his empty tray over to him, letting it slide and bump against the pancake plate.

Judai pushed his own tray to the center of the table and yanked Zane's closer, immediately spitting out everything that was in his mouth onto it. With his tongue hanging out of his mouth, he grabbed his bottle of milk and chugged the entire thing. As soon as he had emptied the plastic container, he slammed it down on the empty tray and gasped breathlessly.

"Aniki, are you alright??" the turquoise-haired first grader asked, obviously still very shaken up about what had just happened.

Before the brunette could reply, Zane spoke up, "You see? Didn't I tell you that you wouldn't like those?"

Ignoring Sho's previous question of concern, Judai looked over to the older boy and, still panting, asked, "What… was _in_ that!?"

"Vegetables." The Truesdale boy put it simply, believing that the other would not understand completely if he actually told him what was in it, "There's only one chef working in the cafeteria that makes vegetable-based foods… and he's not very good. After seeing the clumps in that top pancake, I knew right away he'd made it."

Judai coughed for a moment after hearing the other's explanation; well, at least he knew he could trust Zane's judgment! Once he had gotten himself back under control, he pushed the tray with the half-chewed vegetable pancake on it to the middle of the table and pulled back his pancake tray. Using his fork, he stabbed the top two pancakes and stared at them like they were the bane of his existence as he tossed them on top of what he had spat out on the other plate. He then took a deep breath and looked down at his breakfast again, seeing several blue spots on the pancake which now sat atop the pile. Sparkles materialized in his eyes as he got ready to murder the sweet food.

"BLUEBERRY!!!"

Sho blinked, watching as the brunette suddenly began to attack his pancakes like he had not eaten anything in years, "A-Aniki, slow down… You will choke if you—"

_**COUGH! COUGH!!**_

"… a little too late, there, Sho." Zane pointed out, pushing himself out of his seat and picking up his… contaminated tray. At least he had enough sense not to leave it out in the open; throwing it in the trash was probably the best idea at the moment.

"Ah? 'Ane, wah ah yah ga'ng?" asked Judai with his mouth stuffed with blueberry and strawberry pancakes.

"I need to go find somebody… I'll see you two at the mass." The dark teal-haired boy replied, but froze; did he just understand what that kid was saying? Shaking his head to rid himself of his surprise, he turned and walked off, concluding that he spent _way_ too much time around him.

The brunette swallowed hard, managing to gulp down everything that he had stuffed in his cheeks. His chocolate eyes watched as Zane left, half of him wanting to follow the older boy. Unfortunately, though, Judai thought it best not to. Even though Zane was comparable to his best friend, the fact still stood: he was _not_ Jo-kun.

"Um…"

He turned his head to his left, seeing a rather flustered-looking Sho staring at him with his plate of food empty, "Aniki, I left my choir book in my room… Can I just meet up with you at the church?"

Judai nodded with a bright smile, "Sure! Okay!"

Sho then picked up his tray and walked away, leaving Judai by himself at the table. Judai sighed when he realized he was alone, having an odd feeling of dread creeping over him. He did not like it when he was not around friends; something bad usually happened. Taking his fork, he quickly shoveled the rest of his pancakes into his mouth and, with little difficulty, swallowed it all.

Now, all he had to do was try to get to the church as quickly as he could, and then he would be safe. However, the Angels did not seem to be smiling down on him at that moment. When he stood up from his seat, an unfamiliar hand slapped itself onto his left shoulder and forced him to sit back down.

"Hey there, _Yucky_!"

The hairs on the back of his neck automatically stood up, his eyes went wide in both surprise and fright. As far as he knew, only one person called him by that name. He slowly turned his head, praying to the good Lord above that he was wrong, but it was all in vain.

Bending over beside him with an absolutely _evil_ smirk was none other than the bully who could be thought to stalk him until his friends left him, Santiago Aguilar. The Mexican-American boy's wavy black bangs fell into his eyes, making him shake his head off to the side to get them out. The scary sparkle in his dark brown eyes was all it took to make the Japanese boy want to run for his life.

Judai tried to push himself out of his chair again, but Santiago made sure to keep him down, asking smoothly, "What is the hurry? There is still another half-hour until the mass! Why not sit and talk to me for a while?"

_No thank you! I really do not want to cry today, so it would be really nice of you if you just let me go now._ The brown-haired boy thought, wishing he could say it aloud, but finding himself unable to even open his mouth.

Knowing that he had the younger one's undivided attention, Santiago began to speak, "So, I saw how you yakked that pancake out on Zane's plate. That was _yucky_, Yucky. I cannot believe you do not know why I call you that."

_Yucky means gross, then? Jeez, why does he not just say that!?_ He screamed in his head, actually feeling very angry about his current predicament. Without noticing, he finally opened his mouth to say something, "I-is that all? I really should be going now…"

Santiago's dark eyes turned on him, piercing through Judai's head like a bullet shot. It looked like he was surprised to be spoken to, and truthfully, Judai caught himself off guard, as well. He had not expected to say anything, but it just sort of _happened_.

"What was that? Are you trying to get away from me?" the older boy asked warningly, eyes glaring without narrowing.

"A-ah… w-well…" the brunette gulped, backing away slowly as the other inched closer. Eventually, he lost his balance and began to fall off his seat. His hand stretched out to grab at the table, but snatched his tray, instead, "Aagh!!"

Right when the back of his head was about to slam against the floor, it stopped. He blinked one eye open, catching a glimpse of an animal of some sort covered in slime. Curiosity took over his mind as he sat up safely, looking around for the creature, only to find Santiago yelling about there being _something weird_ in his hair. Chocolate hues glanced over the bully's wavy hair, only to find a small, pink, slime-covered dolphin attached to his head.

Other students in the cafeteria looked over to what was going on, their attention grabbed by Santiago doing an odd dance to get what ever that animal was out of his hair. However, when everyone watching started to laugh instead of freak out, Judai took a wild guess and thought that the creature was a Spirit, meaning that nobody else could see it besides him. He pushed himself up to his feet and, with his tray held at the ready, gave a warning.

"I am going to smack it off of you!"

The older boy spun around so his back was facing the brunette, the dolphin Spirit looking at Judai curiously. One brown eye winked at it, serving as a last-minute signal. As his arms brought the tray down hard over Santiago's head, the dolphin easily hopped out of the way.

"OWW!!" cried the bully, stumbling forward after being hit in the back of his skull.

Judai's feeling of triumph was cut short when Santiago turned to face him, pure anger present on his features. The younger first grader gulped, slowly putting his tray down on the table, as if any sudden movement could possibly set the other off like a bomb. His eyes wandered over to the pink-colored, slime-covered dolphin, noting that it was beckoning him to follow it with its tiny fin. He found no other solution to the problem, so he threw one last quick look at his adversary before rotating at a hundred and eighty degree angle and high-tailing it after the Spirit. Santiago was not far behind.

The little Japanese boy swiftly made his way out of the cafeteria, hearing hurried squeaking sounds coming from the dolphin as it floated up the spiral staircase to the second floor.

"¿¡_OY, DONDE VAS_!? COME BACK HERE, YUKI!!" screamed the angry, red-faced Aguilar boy as he managed to catch the back edge of Judai's shirt in his fingers.

Just hearing the loudness of Santiago's voice was enough to make Judai run faster, though, effectively yanking his clothing out from the other's grasp. Quickly, he ascended the stairs, but the moment the other tried to follow, another odd creature materialized and tackled him back into the small space between the stairs and the wall.

"Oof!!"

Upon hearing the grunt, Judai stopped and backtracked a bit, looking down the spiral staircase and seeing a light green, glowing alien enveloped in the same slime as the dolphin. It giggled with an otherworldly echo, only reassuring him that it _was_ indeed a Spirit. He smiled, turning back around and following the pink dolphin passed the infirmary and toward another door that he had not noticed before.

The animal phased through the door, leaving Judai to push it open.

The room was dark, save for the light shining in through the two large windows on the opposite wall from the entrance. Several chairs were stacked in the four corners of the space, a few desks lining the walls in between them. The brunette tilted his head, interest shining in his eyes.

"What is this place…?" he asked himself aloud, taking slow steps forward as his eyes scanned the area.

"**Eee~!"**

His head jerked to the right, seeing the unordinary Spirit smiling and squeaking excitedly. Its eagerness was contagious, making a huge smile break out over his face. Opening up his arms wide, the pink dolphin floated up to him and solidified slightly, just enough for the boy to hug it. He rubbed his cheek against its slimy face affectionately.

"You were a big help back there, Little Guy! _Honto ni arigatou_!"

The Spirit pulled away from him, flying around in loop-de-loops before it let out an especially loud squeal, almost seeming to be calling for something. Judai watched it intently until he saw other oddly-shaped balls of slime appear out of thin air, animals living inside of them, as well.

One contained a small, hamster-looking mole that scurried up to his feet and sniffed upward in the direction of his face. He could not help but chuckle at how cute it was, squatting down so it could get a better whiff of him.

Next came a purple- and white-colored kitten with bright red eyes filled with _almost_ as much curiosity as Judai's. It waddled over to him, tilting its head and following the mole's example by sniffing at him, too. A rather large-sized caterpillar crawled over to the three of them, closely pursued by a little red bird that kept pecking at it but continually missing.

"Wow, there sure are a lot of you!" Judai laughed as he sat down Indian-style, allowing the mole and kitten to hop onto his knees as the dolphin perched itself on his shoulder. The caterpillar simply crept over the wooden flooring, easily dodging every shot the seemingly-baby chick took to take a bite out of it.

He looked around the room again, guessing that these baby Spirits must have taken to haunting this empty room. It sure did not look like it was used often, let alone entered by other students or staff. Thinking more on it, Judai guessed that if anybody tried to enter their sanctuary, they would simply scare them away, like they had with Santiago earlier.

_Huh… Santiago._ He thought, wondering what happened to the guy.

It was then that two loud _**THUD**_s were heard from outside in the hallway. The Spirit that had stopped Santiago from following him up the stairs rushed into the room, squeaking in alarm. All of the Spirits that had surrounded him panicked for a moment before scurrying away from him and to where they had come from.

"Wait! Come—" he began, but they had already disappeared, "back…"

Judai immediately wondered what it was that could have made such a noisy sound as to scare away the baby Spirits. He looked over to the doorway, getting up and walking over to it. His head poked out just in time to see the back of Santiago's head disappear down the stairs. A sigh of relief escaped him; he was safe for now.

"Hello!!"

The first grader jumped, letting out a yelp of surprise as he jumped out of the room and fell onto the floor. The door closed itself behind him, a barely audible _**ka-chink!**_ reaching his ears. That was probably the Spirits way of saying "_no one but you can come in here_."

"Haha, sorry about that! Are you okay?"

He looked up, only to see the smiling face of a boy who appeared to be around Zane's age as he reached his hand out to him. Blinking up at his friendliness, Judai took his hand and pulled himself up.

The boy wore the completely white version of his uniform, red linings showing around his collar and the edges of his shirt; he was an average third grader, the younger guessed. Long brown hair spiked outward above his shoulder blades, equally brown eyes bright with a constant happiness that Judai found himself wondering about.

"Aah… thanks…" He said, pausing to make sure he said the word in English and not Japanese. He was not so sure if this boy would understand him; not everybody did.

"No problem! My name's Fubuki! Fubuki Tenjoin! Who're you, who're you??" the older brunette asked animatedly.

_This is how _I_ act when I eat a lot of sugar!_ Judai thought, grinning broadly when he realized that this guy had a Japanese name, "Judai _desu_. Judai Yuki."

Fubuki suddenly drew in a deep and loud gasp, "So _you're_ the kid he's always talking about! It's great to finally meet you!" He grabbed his right hand with both of his and shook it exaggeratedly.

"Huh? Who always talks about me?" he asked once he had gotten his arm back, tilting his head cutely.

"Aww!! And you _are_ cute! He was right! I guess I should really give him more credit about who he thinks is good-looking or not, but then again, he didn't do such a good job when the girls came last ti—AAAAH!!! THE _GIRLS_!!"

It had been one thing to follow the way Fubuki was talking so fast, but when he yelled, Judai found himself clamping his hands over his ears and backing up into the wall. Just as the older boy was about start speaking again, a voice that they both knew very well echoed through the corridor.

"Fubuki, please don't scare Judai. I'd like it very much if we didn't have to carry him over to the infirmary after his first conversation with you."

Judai's neck turned so quickly that he felt it crack uncomfortably. Ignoring the wince, he smiled happily, "Zane!"

Fubuki automatically calmed down, standing with his hands on his hips as he looked over to the other third grader, "Oh, hey, Za—what do you mean by that!? All I was doing was being nice!"

The teal-haired boy approached the two, stopping closer to the youngest and placing his right hand over his head of brown and orange hair to ruffle it lightly. Judai could feel a strange, pleasant feeling spread from where the other's hand touched, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand again. His cheeks reddened at the sensation, his smile gaining that special _Judai Shine_.

During that whole time, Zane had not looked at the first grader, just keeping his dark eyes on the Tenjoin before them, "No, you were talking about things that _I_ said. If I wanted Judai to know about that stuff, I would have told him myself."

Judai watched as the two older boys started arguing back and forth to each other, trying to understand what was going on. This had been the first time he met Fubuki, although he had only been there a month… but it was obvious that Fubuki knew Zane.

"Huh…" He mumbled, but he had been loud enough that the other two stopped what they were doing and looked down at him. The little brunette looked back at them, asking, "Zane, how do you know Fubuki?"

After a moment's pause, Fubuki broke out into an uncontrollable fit of giggles, slapping his hands over his mouth in an attempt to quell them. Zane, however, took to slapping his left hand over the side of his face as his right slid off of the kid's head. A look of pure _shame_ came over his face as he replied miserably.

"… He's my best friend."

Judai felt a _**pang**_ in his heart upon hearing what he did, but he did not understand why. Had he thought that Zane would consider _him_ his best friend? After only knowing him for a month? Perhaps it was his resemblance to Jo-kun that made him hope… hope to God that this older boy could be like the best friend he left behind at the mansion.

He tilted his head in confusion, smiling meekly, "You say it like it is a bad thing…?"

Fubuki's giggling turned into outright laughter as he clung to the teal-haired third grader's shoulder in an attempt to keep himself standing. Zane glared out the corner of his eye, having absolutely no effect on the hyper boy.

"It is, most of the time."

The older brunette suddenly let go of Zane and bent down so that his face was level with Judai's, a huge smile plastered over his face, "Hey, Judai! Do you know what today is? Do ya, do ya, do ya??"

The younger took a step back, trying to get the other out of his personal space before shaking his head, "Not really… Other than it being Sunday and a Mass day…"

Fubuki reached out and took his little hands into his own, shaking them constantly, "This is the day of the month when the _girls_ come to visit Saint Fordé's! It's always a lot, a lot of fun!! My little sister is coming! My _adorable_ little sister!!"

Judai blinked, trying to follow what he was saying, but not really understanding so much. Zane must have noticed and took Fubuki by the back of his collar, shoving him a yard away from the little kid. He looked down at Judai as he began to elaborate on what his best friend had been talking about.

"You probably don't know this because you only _just_ came to Saint Fordé's last month… so I'll tell you now. The girls of Saint Joan's Catholic Academy for Girls come to visit Saint Fordé's for a week every other month. It just so happens that _this_ is one of the months the girls will be coming to stay."

The first grader looked up at the ceiling in thought for a moment, folding his arms; if what Zane said was true, then that explained why there were three empty dorm building on the other side of the lake and why there were both Boys and Girls bathrooms in every building on the campus. He had been wondering about these things, but now that they had been explained to him, everything made sense.

"Oh! Okay, I get it."

_**BONG!**_

The three boys froze at the sound, silence falling over them.

_**BONG!!**_

"Uh-oh… The church bells are ringing! Mass is going to start soon!" Judai squeaked, looking both up and down the corridor they stood in for an exit route before beginning to run for the spiral staircase leading down to the first floor.

"We better get a move on, then!" Fubuki called, running along with the kid.

Zane sighed and shook his head before he followed after the two; something just _told_ him there was going to be some very annoying things going on today.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

About an hour and a half later, the mass had finally ended. The adults and older students were trying to keep everyone calm so that they would exit the cathedral without too much fuss. Unfortunately, some of the younger kids were just a little _too_ excited that the sermon was over and ran as fast as they could away from the huge building. Several of them had stepped on the feet of others, easily causing many people to shout or scream. It actually had not taken very long for an uproar to start, leading to the complete disappearance of the single-file lines as everyone crowded together, only a few able to get out unharmed.

The brown-and-orange-haired first grader managed to squeeze his way out of the mob, panting once he was a fair distance away from all of the hubbub. Chocolate eyes looked over to the huge mass of people, wondering if Sho, Fubuki and Zane would get out alright. He blinked, thinking a while longer and concluding that Zane would probably have no problem getting through it all. The older boy was also quite protective of Sho, so it was likely they would get out together. Fubuki, however, was another story; Judai had not known the older brunette long enough to know whether or not he would be okay.

Sighing, Judai turned around and walked off toward the main building again. Maybe he could spend some time with those cute little Spirits he met earlier that day. If they were truly frightened of the people who could not see them, then it was probably a good thing for him to go see them by himself.

There was only one drawback to his plan… The church was on the north side of the lake at the center of the entire campus while his chosen destination was on the south side. Suffice it to say, the first grader had a long walk ahead of him, but he did not mind. Ever since he had gotten to the academy, he was getting stronger little-by-little because of how much walking had to be done there. When he had first gotten there, he could hardly stand to go up the spiral staircase to his room. A month later, he could go up and down the very same set of steps several times every few hours without getting tired.

As he thought back to his first week at St. Fordé's Catholic Academy for Boys, his eyes wandered to stare up at the light blue sky. It was quite the clear day… Perfect for being outside, Mr. Daitokuji would probably say. Remembering the man who literally took care of him, he smiled good-naturedly; he would have to remember to pay him a visit later on!

Judai passed by the south end of the lake, approaching the side of one of the empty dorm buildings. His thoughts drifted back to his earlier conversation with Zane and Fubuki as chocolate hues watched the stable structure that served as Home Base for the girls' visit. It really did not look all that special… and since the girls supposedly showed up only once every other month, it was no wonder that the buildings looked rather abandoned and empty. Shrugging, he closed his eyes and continued on his way.

As he approached the southern corner of the building, his eyes reopened as the sound of footsteps getting closer reached his ears. A few steps further, he looked to his right along the wall perpendicular to the one he had walked beside for the last few minutes, only to be crashed into by someone who seemed to be in a rush.

"Oww!!" a high-pitched feminine voice squeaked, its source falling backwards onto the cobblestone ground.

Judai had simply stumbled backward about a foot before shaking his head and looking to the person he ran into, "Aah… I'm so—" He stopped himself from completing his apology in favor of staring.

He had run into one of the girls!

The young schoolgirl that was sitting on the ground had about elbow-length golden blonde hair and was wearing what Judai guessed to be St. Joan's Catholic Academy for Girls' uniform. Her white top was slightly ruffled from the fall, the left side of her neatly folded collar stretched out over her shoulder. A rose pink bow hung at her collarbone, the ribbon tied around beneath the folding. Her skirt, of the same bright color, went about an inch passed her knees, but snow white boots that went up to her forelegs covered most of her skin from view.

"… um, why are you looking at me like that?" she asked once she had calmed down from the shock of the fall. Her head tilted to the side, light honey gold eyes blinking up at him.

The brunette sucked in an abrupt breath at the color of her eyes; they reminded him so much of his dearly beloved mother. A twinge of homesickness rattled his heart for a moment before he cleared his throat and laughed embarrassedly.

"Ah… haha, sorry… I… um… I have never met a girl before."

Well, he was only _half_-right. There were plenty of girls back at the Andersen mansion, but they were all either seventeen years or older there. This particular moment was his very first encounter with a girl around his own age.

The girl smiled with one eyebrow raised, "Really? That is weird… but now I get to be the one to say I was the first one you saw!"

Judai smiled shyly for a second before regaining his natural confidence and reaching his hand out to her, "Here, let me help you up. I'm Judai, by the way. Judai Yuki."

The blonde picked up her right hand and took his, pulling herself up to stand and dusting herself off a little bit, "Thank you! My name is Asuka Te—"

"_Onee-chan_! _Onee-chan_!!" called a childish voice.

Asuka and Judai looked off in the direction she had been running from before, watching as a tall, orchid-haired girl ran straight for them with a much smaller girl with blush pink hair riding on her back. As soon as the two were close enough, the taller let the other off of her before walking right up to Judai and snatching him by the turtleneck-collar of his shirt. Deep blue eyes were narrowed into a glare at him.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" he cried upon being grabbed, chocolate eyes looking up at the older girl defiantly.

"What'd you do to Asuka? If I hear you hurt her, you're gonna _get it_, Boy!" she hissed threateningly, receiving no encouraging reaction from him.

"Athrun! Athrun, leave him alone! He did not do anything to me!" Asuka explained quickly, coming up beside the dark orchid pink-haired girl and pressing at her arm.

Athrun looked down at the blonde for a moment, seeing the sincere look in her clear golden eyes. Menacing oceanic hues softened, her grip loosening on the boy until she gently let him go.

The little girl standing behind them pouted while hugging a white stuffed bear close, "Onee-chan's no fun. Nee-san was only playing!"

Asuka grinned weakly, watching as the older girl reached her right hand over to ruffle her straight pink hair, "Yeah… _playing_…"

Athrun looked back to Judai, who was straightening his turtleneck after the unpleasant situation he had accidentally landed himself into, "_Gomen ne_, _Gaki_. There are a lot of boys that like to mess with Asuka every time we come here, so I usually have to scare them away by acting like that."

The blonde-haired girl approached the boy and placed a hand onto his right shoulder, worry evident on her face, "Are you okay, Judai? Athrun did not hurt you, did she?"

"Judai, huh? Nice name." the tallest smirked, eyeing him smugly, "I'm Athrun, and this cute little thing is Charity. We're Asuka's bodyguards."

"Yeah, we are bodyguards!" piped the one called Charity with a big smile.

Asuka rolled her eyes and shook her head, "They are actually just my two best friends… Do not pay a lot of attention to them..."

_Two best friends?_ Judai thought, blinking in confusion; he thought that a person could only have _one_ best friend. How did Asuka get two?

"Oh, _Aaaaasukaaaa~_!" a familiar voice sang into the air.

The brunette cracked a grin as he turned his head to his right, knowing exactly who to expect to see, but when he heard an exasperated sigh from in front of him, he got further confused. Although he wanted to look to his new male friend, his eyes stayed on Asuka, who seemed to be frozen with a look on her face resembling both fear _and_ irritation.

"Asuka, my dear little sister!!" Fubuki Tenjoin exclaimed, prancing passed Judai and throwing himself at the young blonde.

Unable to beat the older boy's speed, she was caught in a one-sided embrace from the side, her lips forming an annoyed pout.

"It's been _way_ too long! I missed you so much!! Did you miss me? Nobody picked on you, right? Oh, of _course_ not! You have Athrun to protect you from those big meanies!" the third grader babbled, rubbing his cheek into Asuka's.

"Hey! Don't forget me!! I protect Onee-chan, too!" Charity called, only to be hushed when Athrun picked her back up.

Fubuki laughed as he removed his face from the blonde's personal bubble, "Alright, alright! And Charity, too!"

"_Onii-san_, please let… me… _go_!!" Asuka growled, pushing at his arms until she could finally jump away from him, "Do not embarrass me in front of my new friend!"

"New friend…" the older brunette repeated, looking around and eventually spotting Judai. His confused frown turned into a wide smile as a hearty laughter escaped him, "Judai! Fancy running into you again!"

"Again?" the blonde girl asked, turning to Judai, "You two know each other?"

Judai picked up his right hand and scratched at the back of his head, "Well… we _did_ meet each other earlier this morning, so yes."

"Not to mention that Zane's been talking about nothing but Judai for the passed month, so I already knew a lot about the kid before I actually met him." Fubuki added, nodding in agreement with himself.

"Puh-_lease_… Like Zane would talk about the same person for that long." Athrun chimed in, approaching the conversation's circle with the smaller girl on her back.

"You would be _so_ surprised…" the male giggled before slapping his left hand onto the younger brunette's shoulder and using his other to bring his sister back, "But, Judai! I'm so glad you got to meet Asuka! She's my little sister, don't you know?"

Judai tilted his head to the side, looking from Fubuki to Asuka and back several times before shrugging, "I do not see it."

"GAAH! What would you know? You're just a first grader…"

"Onii-san!" Asuka snapped, an angry look directed at her brother for a few seconds before she leaned forward and took Judai's hand into hers.

The male first grader blinked at her, receiving a smile.

"Ne, Judai… Let's go find Zane and Sho, okay? We can all play a game!"

The idea of everyone, all of the friends he had made since getting to the academy, playing together sounded like something so amazing to him that it was almost too good to be true. Thoughts of everyone playing tag or hide and seek filled his mind, making his heart swell with warmth. He mirrored the girl's smile back at her with ten times the intensity before he nodded vigorously and tightened his fingers around her hand.

"_Hai! Ikuzo!_"

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Eight hours… They had all been playing random games together for almost eight hours straight. The only time they all took a break from playing was for lunch, in which they all retraced their steps to the cafeteria and pigged out on the food that they felt like eating. It took all of Zane's self-control to not hurt Fubuki, in his hyper state of stealing food from everyone else's plates, so Asuka had to continually force her brother to calm down before he would either wind up embarrassing her again or get himself hurt by the easily annoyed blunette he called his best friend.

Games such as Follow the Leader, Hide and Seek, Leap Frog, and even Charades were initiated by the group of kids, all of them having a _blast_ during all that time.

Unfortunately, the girls were all sent to their dorm rooms by 7:00 PM, so Asuka, Athrun and Charity were all forced to leave in the middle of a game of 'Cops and Robbers.' Zane, Fubuki and Athrun had all been robbers, running away from Judai, Asuka, Sho and Charity, who were pretending to be cops. When Athrun froze where she stood beside a tree, having heard the loud echo of the announcement over the campus-wide intercom, Sho scurried up behind her. He had been so focused on catching her that he had not heard the announcement.

"Got you!" He had called, rushing forward and throwing his arms around her waist, "I caught you~ I caught you~!"

Asuka and Charity walked up beside Athrun, who gently pushed the blunette away from her, "Looks like we have to go now."

The boys all gathered together to say goodbye, everyone waving as the girls started their long walk from the southern courtyards to the central dorm buildings.

As soon as the girls were out of sight, the boys all looked to each other, wondering what they should do. Zane suggested they go to bed, too, but Fubuki immediately protested, arguing that they did not even have to go back for another hour or so. Sho mentioned that it _was_ starting to get a little dark out, even with the lantern poles lighting up the concrete and cobblestone pathways.

Judai thought for a moment as the other three boys tried to come up with what to do next; if they needed to go back indoors anyway… He clapped his hands together, effectively gaining everyone's attention.

"I know just the place!"

Turning around and walking off, the little brunette knew that the others were following behind him as he led the way into the main building. They passed by the cafeteria, which was almost completely empty of people, and approached the spiral staircase. When they reached the second floor where Judai had met Fubuki, Judai went up to the door to the room he had been in that morning to spend time with the baby Spirits. His right hand hesitated over the doorknob as he swallowed his hope that the Spirits would let him bring his friends inside with him, pushing the door inward with a little too much strength.

He stumbled forth into the empty room, everything as it had been previously. The only differences this time around were that the baby Spirits were nowhere to be seen, and that there were four random bamboo sticks lying in the middle of the room. Curious, Judai bent down for a moment and picked one up, spinning it in his hands.

The others followed his lead, taking the remaining sticks and beginning a two-on-two swordfight. It had been Zane and Fubuki versus Judai and Sho, but although Judai and Fubuki were clearly matched in the hyper department, it was Sho who lost first. His knees having fallen to the wooden floor with his head hanging low in defeat.

"_G-gomen ne, Aniki_… I was not strong enough."

The young brunette simply smiled confidently, shaking his head as he spun around in a full circle and swiped his bamboo pole sideways, managed to block _both_ Zane and Fubuki's oncoming attacks with one move, "It is alright, Sho! I can take them!"

"Can you _really_?" Fubuki taunted, pressing his makeshift weapon more forcefully against the other's.

"Yes, I can!!" Judai replied, noticing at the last second that Fubuki's teasing was a distraction so that Zane could pull his stick back and try to nail him in the side. Being the fast person he was, however, the plan failed as he pushed off against the older brunette's weapon and jumped back a few feet, just in time to dodge Zane's oncoming attack, "Haha, better luck next time!"

"Aw, man! We lost to a first grader!" the hyper third grader whined, his limbs going limp as his head tilted to his shoulder in shame.

"Well… he's a _talented_ first grader." The dark teal-haired boy pointed out, putting his vacant hand to his hip as the shadow of a grin could be seen on his face.

Judai laughed confidently as he spun the bamboo stick again, his right hand holding it over his shoulder after he was done, "That was really fun! Let's do it again!"

Fubuki looked down at the watch attached to his wrist, frowning at it, "Sorry, Kiddo… It looks like we'll have to stop for the night. It's seven forty-five, so we have fifteen minutes to get to our dorms."

"Aww… _Fine_."

Looking around for a place to toss his pole, the young brunette noticed that one of the windows was open. _Huh… Why did I not notice it was open before?_ He wondered for a moment before shrugging and aiming the butt of his stick at the window's opening. If nobody was walking around outside, and it was likely at this hour, then it would be alright to shoot it out like an arrow. Throwing it forth, the bamboo stick flew out the window and landed somewhere in a tree within his class's courtyard.

"Top score!" He laughed, turning around and waiting for the others to do something.

Zane and Fubuki looked at each other before shrugging and doing the same thing, Zane's pole flying somewhere passed Judai's and Fubuki's.

"Heh, _new_ top score." He teased, poking the happy first grader's cheek.

"Baah, whatever! I will beat you next time!"

The two third graders burst out in laughter at the kid's entertaining personality. It was very refreshing to have a person like Judai Yuki around the academy; nothing seemed to be boring anymore.

"Hurry up, Sho; we're leaving." Zane said before turning around and walking toward the door. Fubuki walked along his side while Judai was a little slow and followed behind them.

Sho nervously fiddled with his grip on the stick he held, trying to get a good aim on the window. Unfortunately, his shaking hand kept on changing the angle and, if thrown, the stick would have hit the wall or glass of the windows. Taking a deep breath, he held on tightly to the stick, his aim at last unmoving. Moving his arm back a bit, he motioned to throw the stick as far as he could, but for some reason, forgot to let go.

"Wh-_WAAAAAH_!!!!!" He cried as he accidentally threw _himself_ out the window with the bamboo pole, trying to be as loud as possible to get others' attention.

"Sho!!" Judai called, spinning back around and running to the window _just_ in time to see a being materialize above the little blunette and catch him around his waist, "Sho…?"

The older boys finally made their way to either of Judai's sides, looking down and being surprised by what they saw. Neither of them could see Spirits like Judai could, so to their eyes, Sho was slowly floating down to the ground.

"We'll be right down, Sho! Hold on!!" Zane shouted before scrambling out of the room with Fubuki.

Judai blinked as he watched from where he stood by the window; a teenaged girl in sky blue-and-pink armor was holding onto an unconscious Sho protectively, setting him softly on the ground in a sitting position. Not really wanting to run all that way down, he purposely hopped out the window, knowing that a certain friend would help him.

And a friend certainly did! Hane Kuriboh appeared suddenly, holding onto him by the back of his shirt and flapping its wings frantically.

"**Kuri! Kuri, kuri, kuri!!!"**

"You are mean; I am not _that_ heavy!" He pouted until his fluffy, furry little friend placed him safely on his feet on the ground.

When Hane Kuriboh let go of his shirt, it settled itself onto his shoulder, panting gently in an attempt to catch its breath. Judai just laughed, ruffling the top of its hairy body before looking to the blonde-haired teen in front of him.

"Ne, _Oujo-san_… _Arigotou_… for saving him."

"**It's no problem… It **_**is**_** my job to protect him, after all!"** she smiled down at the brunette, winking.

"Err… can I ask… who you are?" Judai was a little hesitant about asking; it had been a long time since he met a human-shaped Spirit that could speak.

"**Well, I don't really have a name… but everybody has taken to calling me the Dark Magician Girl!"** she replied, shrugging as she spun a medium-sized wand in her right hand.

"D-_Dark_…?" he asked, gulping; did that mean she was with the Dark Spirits?

Dark Magician Girl stopped spinning her wand and looked at his slightly frightened face, figuring out what he was thinking and laughing embarrassedly, **"O-oh, no! I'm not one of **_**those**_** Spirits! I'm a Guardian Spirit!"** She paused, as if having heard something off in the distance. Sighing, she waved a few strands of stray blonde hair out of her face before bowing politely to him, **"It seems my time's up for the moment! Take care of Sho while I'm away, okay, Judai? You're his very best friend!"**

She winked at him as she faded out of visibility, leaving Judai to feel bad about being called Sho Marufuji's best friend. Frowning in thought, the brunette hardly realized that Sho had awakened and was looking around curiously.

"Huh? I-I am not dead? What happened??" he asked anxiously, quickly getting to his feet and looking over himself, "No broken bones, no bruises… My wrist kind of hurts from throwing the stick, but…"

Judai laughed at the other's constant worrying, placing a hand on his shoulder, "You were saved, Sho! Saved by your Guardian Angel! You are so lucky!"

"**Kuri!!"** Hane Kuriboh barked, floating beside his head.

"_Not now, Kuriboh_…" he mumbled to the spirit so Sho would not hear.

"Sho! Sho!! Are you alright??" Zane called as he ran up to the small boy's side and bent down, checking him over the same way Sho had a few moments previous.

When Fubuki caught up, he stopped beside Judai and leaned over with his hands on his knees, panting heavily. Judai raised an eyebrow at him.

"What took you guys so long?"

"We were… stopped by a teacher… for running in the halls… and running down the stairs, too." The older brunette replied before looking over to Sho, "That was quite the magic trick, Sho! You'll have to teach me how you just floated to the ground like that."

"It was not a magic trick, Fubuki…" Sho said, looking over to him with pleasant grey eyes, "My Guardian Angel helped me!"

"Pfft… Guardian Angel… Fine, be that way! But I'll be all-ears when you wanna tell me!"

Judai chuckled knowingly, shaking his head as he looked to his own little Guardian Angel, who flitted in place as it giggled.

"Hey, Judai? How did you get down here before us?" Fubuki asked, staring at him expectantly. He was _sure_ he had not seen him run ahead of them.

"Haha, you really want to know?"

"… on second thought, I don't think I do." Something just _told_ the third grader that it was something equally as dangerous and equally as _magical_ as what had happened to Sho.

"Well, at least everybody got out of this without getting hurt…" Zane said with a sigh of relief, getting back up to his feet and ruffling the little blunette's bush of light blue hair.

"Ah!" Sho piped, turning to face Judai, "Aniki, would you mind if I came to sleep over in your dorm? I am not sleepy at all and we can still play until we fall asleep!"

"Well, why not make it a bigger sleepover? I'm not tired either!" Fubuki chimed in, grinning widely. When the other third grader opened his mouth, the brunette added "and neither is Zane!" before he could say anything.

Although his mind kept reminding him that getting too close to somebody else was like betraying his best friend back home, Judai's heart felt that their idea would be very fun and that it was the right thing to do. He smiled in defeat, finally pushing away the thought which had chained him in place for so long.

"Sure, Guys. Anything for my best friends."

* * *

Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:

... yes, it took me this long to just write this much. XD

This came out to be about 27 pages... I'm satisfied with how long it was, but I'm even more satisfied that I was able to fit everything that needed to be in this chapter in this Not-Chapter. Everything that happened here _needed_ to happen here.

Next up! What goes on at Johan's house? Haha, it'll definitely be interesting, I'll tell you that! XD

... until then, why don't you take the time to write up a Review? Tell me what you liked, what you didn't like... if you found any mistakes, or even tell me if anything reminded you of something totally random! LOL! I have those moments a lot!

I won't take another 7 months to update again. XD! I'll be back soon with the next and final Not-Chapter.

_Ciao for now!_


	7. Gem Sapphire : Doubt

disclaimer: Emerald Twin Blade does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or any of the characters from the show that show up in this fic. She does, however, own a handful of characters, including Jinsei Kisaki Andersen and Ginka Andersen.

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

WHOA, GUYS! I SO didn't take another 7 months to finally update. XD! I only took 3 this time, but I totally blame school... Too many exams, yo. DX

But yeah, it took me a while again. It's FINALLY done, though! This is the _FINAL_ Not-Chapter, y'all! That means that the next update will start the ACTUAL story!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??

... now go read of Johan's fortunes & mistorunes. XD

* * *

**: ****Gem **:** Sapphire**** : **Doubt – _A Wavering Heart_

_**Fzzzt! BOOM!!**_

"Aagh!!"

_**BEEP! **_**Game Over! **_**BEEP!! **_**Game Over! **_**BEEP!!!**_** Game Over!**

"I _know_ I got a Game Over already! Shut up!!" a seven-year-old blunette shouted at the widescreen television screen in his room, his voice growing louder and louder with each word before he threw down the controller of his Play Station 2 and turned off the gaming console, "Urrrgh!"

Johan Andersen grunted as he let his body go limp over the edge of his bed, which he had been laying his stomach on while playing one of the games his father had sent to him. The frustration on his face melted away slowly into a small frown as his light green eyes held a look of longing within them.

A month and a half… Had it really been so long a time since he had last seen his best friend? Since his best friend was sent away from him?

Over their period of separation, the dark teal-haired boy had often tried to figure out what it was that could have made his mother take such an extreme action, but there was always something missing. There was always one missing factor that he just _knew_ tied everything together, but he could not _find_ it!

Half of the time, Johan simply took to blaming himself. Perhaps if he had spent a little more time with his mother, she would have been a little nicer and let him keep his best friend. Although, he knew very well that if that could have happened, his mother would see Ju-chan as Johan's pet. The thought disgusted him; how could someone see other people, perfectly human, as animals? He would never understand his mother.

Doing a forward-roll off of his bed, he sat up and propped himself up against the footboard, staring at the blank blue screen of his television.

He was not usually one for playing video games… Actually, he had never, _ever_ touched the games that his father sent to him in the mail before the beginning of September. It was just that everything around the mansion was so boring, and he did not want to scare everyone by telling them that he went outside, seemingly by himself, to play with Spirits that none of them could see. So, Johan had finally broken the seals on the packages containing a Play Station 2 and a bunch of games to play. The funny thing about the games, however, had been that they were all of differing ratings. Before his mother could come and take them all away, the little blunette had taken and hidden _Marvel vs. Capcom 2_ and _Devil May Cry 3_. The first game was rated for twelve-year-olds and older, but the latter was a giant leap forward, being rated-M for mature. The boy had simply liked the artwork on the boxes, so he stashed them.

As soon as his mother went through the box of games, she simply left him with three, rated-E for Everyone games of the same series: Mega Man. Johan was not very happy about only being left with them, but when he started playing, he was hooked.

The day before he began to play video games, his older brother Jim Cook Andersen had been taken back to Australia with their grandfather, Ginka Andersen. The blackette was a little reluctant to go, though, because he would be leaving his little sibling alone in a house full of nobody but adults. The blunette had to assure him that he would be alright by himself in order to allow the elderly Andersen to whisk him away to another continent. Sometimes, he wished he had not said such words; maybe Jim would still be around to keep him company, instead of the video games that he shared a love-hate relationship with.

Johan knocked his head against the wood at the foot of his bed, closing his eyes for a moment before pushing himself up to his feet. He dusted off his black, v-neck long-sleeved top, straightening his frilled cuffs before stuffing his right hand into the pocket of his faded blue jeans and running the other through his messy teal hair.

_**Rrrr…**_ He grinned weakly at the sound, feeling a vibration in his stomach from where the noise originated.

It seemed that his stomach knew it was lunch time, meaning that it was probably a good idea to go in search of food. Hopefully, he would be able to eat his fill and sneak back to his room without his mother catching him.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

The hallways on the second floor were deserted, but when Johan reached the foot of the staircase on the bottom floor, he was surprised to see nearly every maid and butler hired to work in the mansion running back-and-forth from room-to-room. A few maids were dusting the ornaments set on display all around the entrance hall while others were carrying clean dishes and towels to and from the kitchen.

Blinking, the blunette made his way passed them all and pushed the door open into the kitchen, only to watch as seven people dressed as chefs expertly cooked food for what he hoped was lunch. The aromas in the air were absolutely delectable, making his stomach growl aloud again. When the sound pierced the noise, everything suddenly went silent, with the exception of the sizzling of vegetables on skillets filled with canola oil. Every cook was staring at the boy, whose ears turned bright red as he lowered his face shyly.

All the older men smiled while three of them laughed, only to go back to what they were doing. The chef closest to the young Andersen boy approached him and bent down, holding a plate with two slices of buttered toast sitting on it.

"I'm sorry, Young Master… But you'll have to wait until lunch is served in the dining room to eat a full meal. You snack on this toast if you'd like." The man in his early fifties offered with a kind smile.

Johan tried to smile back, he really did! However, the sight of his best friend's favorite side-food made him feel a slightly painful _**pang**_ in his heart. He gulped uncomfortably before his lips twitched into a half-second smile and his fingers closed around the edges of the plate. When he firmly held it in his hands, the man went back to his business in helping make lunch.

The boy knew that he should have moved; there was a chance he could get in somebody's way. However, his shoes felt like they were full of lead and glued to the floor, keeping him from moving an inch. Emerald eyes stared down at the buttered toast, but after a few seconds, everything blurred and turned into colors swimming over his vision.

_No… I can't cry here._ He reminded himself, shutting his eyes tightly and trying to get his tears to retract themselves. Spinning around on his right heel, he marched out of the kitchen and back into the entrance hall, never taking his gaze off of his snack.

He walked up to the wide staircase's left side and sat on the third step, placing the plate in his lap. His head tilted to his right until he heard and felt a _**thump**_ against one of the thin pillars holding up the railing step-for-step. Green eyes were downcast and half-lidded as his right hand gingerly plucked a piece of toast off the top of the plate.

Just staring at it was enough to bring back memories of Ju-chan's childish, gleeful gasp and how he would take a greedy first-bite into the buttery slice of warm bread. Johan groaned inwardly; what he would _give_ just to see the little brunette's smile again!

"Jo-kun? What're you doing here?"

The blunette ripped his eyes away from the food, stuffing the entire piece of toast into his mouth quickly as he looked up at who had addressed him. A wave of relief ran over him as he swallowed the bread; it was his favorite maid, not to mention his best friend's mother, that stood before him.

Seikou Yuki leaned forward, her arms locked straight as she held a large basket of dirty towels in her hands. Her head was tilted to the side slightly, making some of her long orange hair flow over her shoulder. Honey golden eyes watched him curiously and with sympathy once she noticed the light red flush on his somewhat shiny, wet cheeks.

"S-Seikou-san…" Johan stuttered, surprising himself with how he must have sounded. His vacant hand flew up to his face, fingers running over his left cheek, _When did I start crying again? And for how long this time?_

The stunned look on his clearly miserable face made the maid place the basket on the floor beside the stairs before taking a seat beside the poor little boy. Her right arm wrapped around his waist as she coaxed him into a gentle embrace.

The Andersen boy completely forgot about the snack plate in his lap when he threw his arms around her neck and pressed his face into her shoulder, sobbing as quietly as he could. He shifted his body to face toward hers, his hands clinging to the back of her light blue uniform.

"Shh… It's okay… Don't cry, Jo-kun…" Seikou cooed, rubbing circles soothingly on his back to calm him down.

This was not the first time that the boy had come to her in tears. It had actually happened quite often since he allowed himself to leave his bedroom. Some of the times, she too found herself crying for the same reason. Ju-chan _was_ her son, after all. This time, though, she really did not have the time to be sad.

As soon as Johan's trembling body stopped shaking, and his weeps were simply sniffles, she held him at arms length with her hands on his shoulders.

"Jo-kun… There isn't any reason why you should be crying…" she explained, smiling encouragingly, "Daitokuji-sensei's letter should be coming any day now… and I've prepared a letter to send to them, so there's nothing to worry about."

_A letter?_ Johan thought, blinking away the last of his tears as he stared at her, "Seikou-san… Next time, can I try to write to Ju-chan? My teacher says my handwriting is getting better, so…"

"Of course!" Seikou exclaimed, her smile brightening significantly, "I'm sure that Judai would _love_ to get a letter from you!"

Her grin was contagious; the blunette found himself mirroring her expression as he watched her get to her feet and bend down to pick up the fallen plate and the now-dirty slice of bread. Shrugging, she tossed the plate into her basket with the toast before winking at the young boy and walking off.

Seikou Yuki pushed open the door to the laundry room with her brown boot-covered foot and entered, the scents of clean clothing and soap blasting her sense of smell. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of familiar copper brown ponytails. An excited grin came to her face as she turned at a ninety degree angle and called to her fellow maid.

"Aurelia! Come here for a second!"

Dull blue eyes looked over to her in a blank stare before Aurelia DeMont exhaled heavily and approached her. The same hues eyed the random plate of toast in the basket of dirty towels the elder maid held.

"… why the toast?"

"Long story. Anyway," the orange-haired lady changed the subject, her excitement evident due to her bobbing up and down on the balls of her feet, "can you do me a favor and send this letter?"

Holding onto the basket with one hand, she used her left to reach into a hidden pocket on the side of her dress to pull out a sealed envelope with a stamp on it. Aurelia easily took the letter from her and stared at the wording on the front; it was addressed to a _Mr. Daitokuji_ at a certain _Saint Fordé's Catholic Academy for Boys_. Her eye twitched at the sight, but it went unnoticed by the other's bubbly mood.

"So? Can you do it??"

The younger maid sighed, "Sure… Okay."

"Yes! Thank you very much, Aurelia! See you later!" Seikou bade her farewell before getting a firmer grip on the basket and scurrying off to one of several washing machines in the laundry room.

Aurelia exited the area, thinking of what she should do. _She_ had been the one to have the little brunette sent away in the first place! Why would she help those who missed him dearly communicate with his keeper at a different location? Without finding any good reason to, she simply shrugged and slid the letter into the trash can behind the staircase to the second floor before going on with her duties.

_A double-agent's work is never done, I suppose…_

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Johan aimlessly wandered through the second floor corridors, only doing so because he was very bored and did not want to go back to his room to indulge himself with video games again.

_**Crreak!**_ A door opened somewhere behind him; that could only mean one thing…

"Jo-kun! Jo-kun, come here, Dear!" came the too-sweet voice of his mother.

He cringed at how shrill she sounded; he did not have to see her to know she was anxious about something. Turning around with a sigh of defeat, he dragged himself over to her open bedroom door. Leaning his shoulder against the doorframe, he cleared his throat to get her attention.

Jinsei Kisaki had been fiddling with the sapphire necklace hanging around her neck. It certain filled up the space left exposed by her square-neck, royal blue dinner dress. Her head turned to him quickly as soon as he made a sound, her indigo blue hair swaying from her swift movement.

"Ah! There you are…" she said with a nervous chuckle, walking up to him and bending down so that their eyes were level with one another. Piercing oceanic eyes tried their best to look soft, but her worry was too obvious to hide, "Jo-kun, I'm having some very special guests come to eat lunch with us… and they happen to have a boy around your age, so wouldn't it be nice if you made friends with him?"

Johan was pleasantly surprised; was his mother actually trying to help his situation? Albeit, it _had_ been her to send his best friend away and _put_ him in such a horrible condition to begin with.

"Um… Yeah! Okay…" He agreed, nodding to further acknowledge his choice to go along with whatever she had planned, "So… who's coming?"

Seeing that her son's mood had lifted somewhat allowed even her to relax a little, her smile a little more at ease, "The heads of the Manjoume Group. They have three sons, but the first two are a little older than Jimu… I think you'll be able to get along with their youngest very well, though!"

Her calm demeanor was suddenly shattered when she caught a glance at the clock, "Oh, my! They'll be here any minute! Jo-kun, would you please go change into something a little more… formal? This _is_ the first time you'll be meeting them, so you should want to have a good impression on them!"

With that, he was shooed out of the room and towards his own before his mother hurried down the staircase as quickly as she could in her royal blue heels. The little blunette watched her go for a moment before a huge grin broke out across his face and he rushed into his room, slamming the door behind him.

_A new friend! I wonder what he'll be like? I can show him around the mansion, and we can eat food, and play video games, and…_ Johan's train of thought derailed itself abruptly, his rush to find some presentable clothing coming to a halt as he stared directly out the window of his room with a confused and lost look on his face, _What am I doing…? I'm supposed to be waiting for Ju-chan to come back! Why am I getting excited over somebody I don't know coming over?_

He pulled his ruby necklace out of his shirt and looked down at it, rubbing his thumb over its smooth texture, _But… wouldn't Ju-chan want me to make more friends? I know that he's too friendly for his own good, so _he'd_ want to… And no matter what, he'll always be my best friend…_

Nodding to himself, he came to a decision; he would give this new person a chance when they showed up.

_**DING-DONG!!**_

"Aack! That's the doorbell!" he cried before tearing all of his clothes out of a drawer beside his bed, "What do I wear, what do I wear??"

_Jeez, I never thought I'd wish Mom wasn't busy so she could help me choose what to wear!_

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Although it had taken a few minutes, Johan eventually settled on just pulling on a pair of nice white slacks. His black v-neck top was nice enough as it was, so he kept it on.

_**Crreak!**_ His bedroom door groaned softly as he slowly pulled it open, sliding out into the hallway and tiptoeing to the railing on the second floor to look down.

His mother was talking and laughing merrily with a couple a few years older than her, but through her high-pitched laughter, he simply ignored her in favor of staring at the three boys that stood behind the man and other woman.

Johan assumed that the two taller boys were the older brothers… One of them had an odd, almost boxy hairdo that made him wonder how he managed to style it like that, while the other had thicker hair that was completely smoothed back and curled outward at his neck. The smallest of the three seemed to be about Ju-chan's height with spiky hair that went out in all directions. The trio all had the same jet black hair and narrow, stormy grey eyes.

The blunette nearly cringed when he noticed the devious looks on the older boys' faces; something told him that he did not want to know what they were thinking. It seemed that the young brother thought the same, as he had sidestepped away from his brothers by a good two feet before the adults looked to them.

"Oh, don't they look adorable!" Jinsei Kisaki squeaked, looking at the three boys in their fancy church clothes, "They all look like their father!"

The man laughed as his ego inflated, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose and straightening his coat, "Well, they're all real winners! But I think Jun looks a little more like his mother…"

The youngest blackette blushed, looking away from the older people who were laughing good-naturedly.

Johan leaned against the railing on the second floor; so his potential friend was named Jun, huh? Jun Manjoume… What an interesting name.

"Oh, Jinsei-san… Didn't you say you had a son?" Mrs. Manjoume asked, blue-grey eyes half-lidded as though they were weary, but a pleasant smile on her face suggested otherwise.

"Yes, of course!" the indigo-haired lady replied before calling over her shoulder, "Jo-kun! Jo-kun, could you please come here?"

_That's my cue!_ The little blunette nodded to himself, quickly making his way down the stairs to approach his mother and her guests, "_Hai, Okaa-sama_?"

Jinsei Kisaki smiled down at him, picking up her left hand and ruffling his hair gently, "There you are! I'd like you to meet Mr. and Mrs. Manjoume…" She motioned to the older couple near her with her hand, and then to their children, "And these are their sons, Chosaku, Shoji and Jun."

Johan had giggled contentedly when he felt his mother's soft fingers in his hair. He stepped forward to shake hands with the Manjoume couple and then nodded to the boys. When he looked to Jun, he smiled in a friendly manner, making the blackette turn away in embarrassment.

_How cute…_ He found himself thinking, a faint chuckle rumbling in his throat.

"Now that the introductions are done, shall we go on to lunch?" the blue-haired lady asked, motioning with her right hand to the entrance to the dining room.

She led the way in, the delicious smell of food wafting through the air. Johan could feel his stomach growling and silently thanked it for not being loud enough for the others to hear. So far, he figured that he had made a good enough impression on the Manjoumes.

The large dining room had an inviting feel to it, with its warm colors of blood red curtains, placemats, and decorations. Polished, brown wooden furniture stood in place, not a spec of dust to be seen. The table was adorned with seven rectangular placemats, an intricate floral design carved into each one. Two serving tables stood up against opposite walls, a large window on the eastern wall showing off a nice view to the backyard.

The children all took their seats, Jinsei Kisaki having gone to show Mr. and Mrs. Manjoume a priceless set of china that had been on display in the corner of the room.

The little blunette sighed where he sat, the empty seat to his right would be where his mother sat, and to his left would be who he hoped would be his new friend. As Jun was about to say something aloud, he stopped himself and hopped out of his chair to scurry over to his mother. The way he tugged at her long black skirt made Johan think of Ju-chan when he would try to get Seikou's attention. The pleasant smile that had curled onto his face turned into a frown as he shook his head, trying to clear the image from his mind.

This was no time to be thinking about his best friend!

"Heh, heh…"

He blinked out of his thoughts and looked to his left, only to find that the middle brother, Shoji Manjoume, had taken Jun's plate from his spot and was hurrying to the other side of the table again. Chosaku sat in his seat, chuckling deviously.

Johan stared as the plate of fried fish and mashed potatoes was placed onto the chair where their mother was to sit. He was surprised at this; what were they _doing_?

Shoji quickly sat back into his chair next to his brother, both laughing quietly as if no one had caught them. The seven-year-old was still confused, but once everyone came to sit at the table, he thought he might have finally understood.

As Mrs. Manjoume began to descend into her seat, Johan shot to his feet, "Wai--!"

A squeal of fright tore from her throat when she felt the mashed potatoes and brown gravy soil her dress, jumping back up to stand. Johan made a nervous look as he pulled his hand to his lips, nibbling on his nail. He had not been fast enough.

Mr. Manjoume and Jinsei Kisaki had gotten up and were trying to wipe off the white potatoes, only accomplishing in making a much darker spot of black on her outfit.

Unfortunately, Jun Manjoume had chosen this moment to ask aloud, "Hey, where did my plate go?"

The three adults froze and looked at him, his father making a slightly angered look while his mother sighed restlessly.

"Jun, why did ruin your mother's dress?" the black-haired man asked, smoky grey eyes narrow as he stared firmly at the young boy.

"Me? I didn't do anything! I was with you all the whole time!" Jun pointed out, pure sincerity in his eyes and voice.

"Jun, stop… Just say that you're sorry."

Johan looked to the youngest Manjoume out the corner of his eye, finding that he looked quite devastated that his parents did not believe him. It was finally his time to speak up, so he cleared his throat to get their attention.

"It wasn't Jun-kun. Shoji-san took his plate and put it on your chair." He explained simply, his expression calm and collected, "I saw him."

Shoji's eyes went wide while Chosaku glared at the child; Johan merely ignored them and continued to watch the Manjoumes.

All was quiet for a moment until Jinsei Kisaki nodded, "I believe you, Jo-kun… You don't tell any lies, especially for someone you don't know yet."

Mr. and Mrs. Manjoume stared at the indigo-haired woman before deciding to let the entire incident slide, leaving the two oldest brothers out of trouble. Johan was puzzled; why had Jun gotten into trouble when he did not do anything? Why was the guilty party not scolded?

He poked his fork through a small bowl of corn in thought; was there no sense of justice with that family? He could feel a pair of glares on him all throughout lunch, but he chose to pay no attention to them. He was, however, very aware of the shy gaze directed at him from his left side. Every time light green orbs glanced over, Jun would be taking a rather rushed bite of his freshly grilled fish with a bright red blush over his cheeks. All the blunette could do was smile at him and continue eating.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

"_Why don't you take Jun up to your room?"_ Jinsei Kisaki Andersen had suggested with a motherly smile on her face.

Johan was amazed at how different his mother would behave when around unfamiliar company; he half wished that she would act like that more often.

With that thought aside, the young Andersen boy led his new acquaintance up the stairs and into his bedroom. It was relatively presentable, with the exception of the wrinkles on his bed sheets. He had left the TV on, the screen still bright blue.

"So, Jun-kun, do you like video games?" Johan came right out and asked, not wanting there to be a long and awkward silence, "My dad always sends me a whole bunch, so I started playing some of them."

"My parents buy us games, but my brothers never let me play." Came the young Manjoume's reply as he threw glances all around the room.

"Wow, that's not nice…" the blunette pouted, motioning for the other to follow him over to the foot of his bed. He pulled out an extra controller from under his bed along with one of the games his mother had thought she took from him, "The games I always play are only the one-player kind, but I have a two-player one that my mom doesn't know about."

"Huh… Which one is it?" Jun asked, curious.

"Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Have you played it?" A few seconds later, it occurred to him that _Marvel vs. Capcom 2_ was rated-T, so it was not likely that Jun had seen it previously.

"I think I saw my brothers play it once or twice…"

Once Johan was done connecting the second controller and replacing his evil MegaMan game with the fighting game, he started it up and watched the intro play itself through. He looked over to Jun and offered a friendly smile.

"It's really fun once you get the hang of it."

"Err… yeah."

Johan went over what the controls were, but Jun had somehow chosen to play Cammy, a female character from Capcom, and could not figure out how to change characters. The blunette laughed at this, but chose to play as Rogue from the Marvel side so that they were both played girls.

They fought several times, but after that first battle, they continually played as other, _male_ characters. Most of the time, Johan would win, making Jun want to play over and over again until he could finally manage a victory once or twice.

By their seventh game, they had figured out that Johan played best as Gambit from Marvel, and that Jun could play as Blackheart from Marvel and Ryu from Capcom pretty well. They would laugh continually at the characters' repeated battle cries and at how slow the other was to block or dodge.

"Jeez, Jun-kun, give me a _chance_, will you? I can't do anything when you play Blackheart!" Johan barked, smashing the buttons on his controller with eyes glued to the TV screen.

"No way! The minute I give you a chance, you will beat me!!"

As they continued to play, the bedroom door slowly squeaked open, effectively drawing Jun attention from the game. His head snapped to his left to look at it, grey eyes wide in fright. His attention was no longer on the game, which easily gave Johan the time he needed to cut Blackheart down to size with Gambit's barrages of exploding cards.

"Whoa… What happened? You were winning, then—" When Johan looked over to the other, his eyes caught sight of what he had hoped would not happen.

"Hey there, Kids…" Chosaku Manjoume greeted, a mischievous grin on his face, "Mind if we join you?"

He had entered the room with Shoji at his side, both taking a good look around before approaching them with arms crossed.

"Y'know… we didn't appreciate how you almost got us into trouble at lunch, _Gaki_… So we decided to come up here to get a few things straight with you." The oldest Manjoume explained arrogantly, "We're older than you, therefore we are _above_ you. We can do whatever we want, which means that _you_ can't go telling on us, got it?"

Johan did not look scared; in fact, he seemed just a little bit amused by Chosaku's words, "Hah… Really? Or else what?"

"Or else we'll pound you!" Shoji growled, cracking his knuckles loudly.

That lone movement was enough to get Jun to flinch, which made the Andersen boy wonder if the two older brothers hurt Jun often at home. This thought only made him angry; _no one_ messed with _his_ friends.

Chosaku took another look around, his stormy grey eyes falling on the game they were playing. A wicked smile came to him as he looked to Shoji and motioned for him to look. Both of their expressions mirrored each other, when the slightly younger spoke up.

"Are you two playing Marvel vs. Capcom 2?"

"You _are_ aware that it's rated-T for teens, right…?" the oldest questioned, suppressing the urge to laugh aloud, "You two are only, what, seven years old? I wonder what Mrs. Andersen would say if I told her you were playing it…"

The threat struck Johan hard, shock evident on his face, "No! You can't do that!!"

"Oh? And why not?" Chosaku's face looked a little _too_ delighted at his protest.

"Because my dad sent me these games and she doesn't have any right to take them from me!" the young blunette snapped, not happy at what was going on.

"Well, even if you won't get in trouble, _Jun_ will, because he's not allowed to play video games." Shoji cut in with a matter-of-factly tone.

"Wha… Not allowed to…" Johan turned to Jun, only to find his head lowered, "Jun-kun?"

"He's not allowed to play video games at all because he's always getting in trouble!"

"What a troublesome kid! Always making problems for Mother and Father!"

The two older Manjoumes sneered and insulted their youngest brother, having fun doing so. The Andersen boy, however, was no amused. He glared at the two bullies with fist clenched in anger; they were making Jun feel bad and they did not care! Johan _hated_ people who were like that.

If only he could do something to make them go away… to make them stop their verbal abuse of his friend.

"**Let me at 'em, Jo-kun! Let me at 'em!!"** a familiar, otherworldly voice echoed in the air.

He blinked out of his state of rage, looking down to the light blue charm on his Spirit Bracelet, _Of course! Cobalt Eagle can help!_

Johan held his wrist out in front of him, the jewel glowing brightly until the spirit of the Cobalt Eagle appeared behind him and shot forth to the two boys. It clamped its talons onto Shoji and peaked several times quickly at Chosaku's head.

The Manjoumes let out cries of discomfort and tried to swat away whatever being was attacking them, but they could not see what it was. Eventually, the two just dashed out of the room, screaming at the top of their lungs.

Johan was left laughing at them; although they had spoken as if they were tough, they were really just a couple of wimps. When Cobalt Eagle returned to him and perched itself on the headboard of his bed, he glanced over to Jun, only to find him staring at the Spirit. The blunette was confused for a moment and then wondered aloud.

"Can you… see him?"

Jun nodded, "Yeah, I can see him! That must mean he's a Spirit, right?"

The blunette was astonished; there were other people who could see them besides himself and Ju-chan? A smile crept up on him as he thought more on it; a whole new world had just opened up, and he could introduce the rest of the Crystal Beasts to his new friend, as well!

"There are more around here! C'mon, I'll show you!" he exclaimed excitedly, taking Jun's hand and running out of the room.

All along the way, he could not get out of his head how similar this Jun Manjoume was to his best friend Ju-chan. They were both bullied and called troublesome, both could see spirits, both were cuter than boys should have been… It was mind-boggling!

It had been the moment they reached the backyard that Johan's enthusiastic run came to a very slow stop. He had brought the two of them to a halt _just_ outside of the forest, which house his and Ju-chan's secret spot. More thoughts flooded his mind, confusing him.

_I found that spot with Judai. Only Ju-chan and I have ever been there… Nobody else knows about it. Not even Seikou-san._

What was he _doing_? Taking an outsider to that special place…

_That's… That place is mine and Ju-chan's, and nobody else's._

"Err… J-Johan-kun?" Jun asked reluctantly, saying the other's name for the first time.

Johan turned to face the other, a sad expression on his face as he averted his eyes and bowed in apology, "I… I'm sorry… but I can't show you that place where all of the spirits are… at least, not right now…"

The Manjoume blinked for a moment, but smiled and shook his head, "That's okay. A lot has happened today, anyway, right?" He turned around with his hands behind his back, "Thanks for standing up for me… you know, at lunch and… and when my brothers were being mean to me."

The blunette looked up again and approached the other, putting his hand on his shoulder, "That's what friends are for."

"Friends…" Jun mumbled, chuckling, "I'm glad, then… to have a friend like you."

Johan's gloom melted away as he led the way back into the mansion, satisfied with his new friendship to Jun Manjoume.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Another hour or so had passed, and by that time, the Manjoume family had already left. The adults had been quite confused by the panic on their two oldest sons' faces and by the out-of-place smile on their youngest's, but they ignored all of the oddities in favor of leaving the Andersen mansion with pleasant goodbyes to the lady of the house.

The young Andersen stood outside of his bedroom, smiling at how good a time he had that day. It still amazed him that Jun could see the spirits, and it amused him to no end that his brothers could not. Even though no one was around, he really wanted to talk about his day to someone. The memory of his mother in an agreeable mood led his feet to take him to her room where she was likely changing into more comfortable clothes.

He knocked on her closed door, looking around in case there were servants watching. Surely, the staff would find it strange that he, the rebellious son of the house, was going to see his mother without being summoned.

"Come in!" Her voice sounded gleeful and sweet, enough to lift the boy's spirits.

Johan pushed open the door and entered, closing it behind him as he looked over to the window. His mother sat at the windowsill with her legs off to her side, oceanic eyes looking out to the forest. No longer wearing the royal blue evening dress, she wore a thick turtleneck dress that went down to her knees, but even with that, she had long black stockings pulled up to hide all of her skin.

_Oh, that's right… Okaa-sama's sensitive to the cold._ He remembered, a slightly anxious frown pulling at his lips, _It must have bothered her a lot to wear that other dress…_

Jinsei Kisaki looked over to him, smiling softly at him, "Jo-kun! How are you, Dear? Did you have a good time with Jun?"

The little blunette nodded as he approached her, pulling her into a long hug.

The Lady Andersen was caught off guard, having not expected her son, who had been avoiding her for the longest time, to give her a hug. A truly joyful smile blessed her face as she held him close, glad to have broken the barriers he held up against her.

"Okaa-sama… It… it didn't hurt when you wore that other dress for the Manjoumes, did it?" He asked softly, concern in his voice.

"Oh, I'm alright… You don't need to worry about silly things like that, Jo-kun." She giggled, petting his hair as he snuggled into her neck, "I can handle my own problems… But enough about me, tell me about you!"

Johan, although unconvinced that she was completely fine, pulled away from her with a light smile, "It was great! We were playing M—MegaMan the whole time, but it was really fun! And did you know he could see the spirits, too? You should have seen the look on Cobalt's face when he found out Jun was actually staring at him the whole time!"

His mother listened intently as he babbled on about all the fun things that happened, even understanding when he mentioned the Cobalt Eagle. She had always known about those Crystal Beast spirits, though she was unable to see them, so it was easy enough to keep up with her little son's stories.

Once he was done explaining, he thought for a moment and then looked to her with a curious look, "Oh, and Okaa-sama? Why did you invite the Manjoumes over in the first place?" Surely, there was a more important reason than for him to meet Jun.

Jinsei Kisaki giggled, "Oh, it was just because I knew they had a son your age! Mr. and Mrs. Manjoume don't believe in spirits, so they don't know about his gift. Imagine my surprise when I heard that their youngest had a thing for the supernatural!"

_Wait… then she really just invited them for me…?_ Johan knew that he should be happy, because his mother was thinking of him, but there was something nagging at him. It was almost as if she had done it for the wrong reason.

The indigo-haired lady bent down and hugged him close again, smiling, "I know you've been missing your pet rat… but now that you have a high class friend who's worthy of you, you won't be alone anymore."

The boy froze, eyes going wide at what she said. His heart rate increased as his blood boiled, anger fueling his actions. He tore himself away from her, putting a good three feet of distance between them as his glare burned through her.

"I _knew_ this was too good to be true!!" He cried, fists clenched in rage, "Ju-chan is my best friend and _nobody_ will ever change that!! Jun could never take his place in my heart, and no matter how many other kids my age that you throw at me, no matter how many others who can see spirits like me, Ju-chan will always be that one important friend that I never, ever forget!"

His mother's pleasant mood dissolved with every word he let out into the air, her body shaking with an anger only to be rivaled by her son's.

"Have you any idea how _troublesome_ your _best friend_ was? Friends like that are nothing but a bad influence and are better left out of your life!" She spat vehemently, oceanic eyes smoldering as her pupils seemed to turn into slits, "For as long as you live beneath this roof, I will make sure that you _never_ see that _annoying_, _bothersome_ child again!!"

Her shouts were like several harsh jabs to the heart, making him feel like the helpless little boy that he truthfully was. He was unable to handle listening to her as she insulted his best friend, shutting his eyes tightly. He spun around and fled from the room, running down her private corridor and back into the main hallway.

_It can't be… She doesn't have the right to keep us away from each other!!_ He shouted in his head, tears stinging behind his eyelids.

Although he kept telling himself that, he knew it was not true. The lady of the house had every right to keep whomever she wanted away from those who inhabited the house, and this fact made him so, _so_ sad.

He slowly came to a halt at the large window, looking out over the forest and to the cloudy sky. Emerald hues glittered with unshed tears as thunder rumbled softly, almost comfortingly, in the darkening clouds. A light shower of rain fell from them, like the Heavens were crying for him, too. Just the idea of it made him close his eyes and allow his tears to slide down the sides of his face.

Johan fell to his knees and buried his sobbing face into his hands, his back hunching over the windowsill as his shoulders shook. He picked up his head a few seconds later and cried out loudly, "W-waaaaah!"

_Ju-chan… If only tears could bring you back… _He thought, realizing that with how long he had been crying since he had last seen him, Ju-chan could have been back already. A feeling of hopelessness washed over him, making him cry even harder.

_Maybe… I _should_ just give up on you…_

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

A knock came to Jinsei Kisaki's bedroom door, interrupting her angry pacing. She abruptly turned to look at it, barking a "come in!!" at whoever was on the other side.

It came open as her least favorite orange-haired maid entered the room with a telephone in hand, "Jinsei-sama, you've got a call from Ginka-san."

The Lady Andersen growled as she approached Seikou Yuki and snatched the cordless phone from her, shooing her out of the room before answering it in the sweetest voice she could muster, "Hello, Ginka-san!"

"_Err, hello, Jinsei-chan..."_

She blinked in confusion, "Is something wrong?"

"_Well… Y'see, there… there was an accident…"_ Ginka Andersen replied slowly, having a rather hard time trying to explain, _"Jim was out with Karen and…"_

Oceanic eyes widened in fright as she listened to him a while longer. She suddenly screamed into the phone, "_WHAT_ HAPPENED TO MY BABY'S EYE??!"


	8. 01 : A New Beginning

disclaimer: Emerald Twin Blade does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, or any of the characters that you recognize from the show that show up in this fanfic. She does, however, own the idea for this fic, and a few of the characters, such as Jinsei Kisaki Andersen and Santiago Aguilar.

Emerald's News and Nonsense:

HOLY CRAP, Y'ALL, GUESS WHAT!! Today is the **ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY** of this fic having been posted on FanFiction Net!! Isn't it just SO appropriate that I update on the same day the Not-Chapters were first posted? HAHAHA!!

Okay yeah, this took me a while to write, too, but I can honestly blame school for that, like, seriously... But I have to thank my best friend Badfaith for helping me out with a part or two. x3 Whenever I get stuck, she gives me a hand.

M'kay, you can finally go read the first REAL chapter of this entire story!! You'll find it quite unexpected!! AHA!

* * *

**: ****Fragment No.01**** : A New Beginning** – _Start of Junior Year_

Ten years… It had been ten long years, and yet the large patch of land on the countryside still seemed so young. The white-painted mansion stood tall and proud, royal blue curtains and shutters adding color to its otherwise blank exterior. The plant life surrounding the house had been cut recently, with the smell of fresh grass carried on the soft breeze that made its way over the earth.

There were very few clouds floating in the light blue sky, allowing the bright sun to illuminate the landscape. As time had passed, the Andersen family had eventually had the dirt road paved with black concrete, leaving a circular driveway at the front of the manor. A parking garage had been added to the western area, housing the vehicles of all the people inhabiting the area.

It was seven forty-five in the morning, and many maids and butlers were already awake and performing their daily duties. It was odd, but it seemed as though nearly nothing in the house had changed over the last decade, with the exception of everyone aging.

Another thing that had not changed was the Lady Andersen's unfortunate condition. Each day, she had become more and more dependent on her young son. If she could not see him, she would burst out into hysterical tears and let paranoia control her mind.

Although her wonderful son understood her condition, he knew that he had to do what was best for himself.

"You're _WHAT_?!!" Jinsei Kisaki Andersen cried, oceanic eyes wide and shiny as she stared at the young man before her.

Johan Andersen stood at a good 5'11" and was quite muscular. His teal blue hair had changed to a slightly lighter shade while his once clear, crystal emerald eyes had turned to a pure light green. At that moment, he folded his arms over his chest, somewhat wrinkling the sleeves of his V-neck top.

"I _said_ that I am going to continue my education at a prestigious private school a town or so away. I need to attend a normal school like other students my age; I've already looked into it, and the bus is coming to pick me up in fifteen minutes." The tone he spoke with left no room for discussion; he had made up his mind and planned to stick to his decision.

"B-but, Jo-kun!!" his beautiful mother protested, forcing herself up from where she sat at her window, "You can't! You can't just leave me here by myself!"

Suddenly, the blue-haired boy's eyes narrowed coldly at her. A look of superiority formed on his face as he looked down on her, "That's a familiar phrase… Where have I heard that before…?"

Jinsei was taken aback at her son's calm, harsh words, realizing that he had also said something similar when he was younger.

Having caught her off guard, Johan took his chance to turn around and exit the room, only to find a butler standing at the door. He nodded to the elderly employee, who wordlessly picked up the two large rolling suitcases that stood to either of his sides. The Andersen teen himself held a carry-on bag over his shoulder, his eyes shut so that he would not be tempted to look back toward his mother's private corridor.

"Jo-kun!!" the Lady Andersen's voice shouted as running footsteps echoed down the hallway, "Where are you going? At least tell me that much! And who do I call to get a hold of you??"

The seventeen-year-old sighed in exasperation, keeping his eyes away from his mother as he hurried down the staircase, "I'll be attending Saint Fordé's Catholic Academy for Boys, and just look up the number or something, I don't know! Jun's going there, too, so if you find yourself too lazy to look in a phone book, call Mrs. Manjoume."

Jinsei Kisaki let out a shrill gasp once they had reached the first floor, throwing her arms over her boy's shoulders in a vain attempt to stop him, "No! Y-you can't go to _that_ school!! Why don't you at least go to Saint Geoffrey's? At least that one's closer!"

"Okaa-sama, what are you _thinking_?! Saint Geoffrey's has a bad reputation of smuggling drugs! Don't you watch the news?" Johan finally stopped and turned to face her, "What don't you like about Saint Fordé's? I have found absolutely nothing wrong with that school. If the newspaper has not made any bad remarks about it, then I find it to be the most perfect school in the area!"

The indigo-haired lady let go of him, pulling her right hand up so that she could bite her fingernail in anxiety, _I can't tell him that I sent his pet rat there!!_ "_Eto_…"

Her too-long pause was enough for him as he heard a loud engine at the front of the house, along with the screeching of brakes making tires come to a stop. Johan smiled, throwing a glance over his shoulder toward the front door.

"Ah, looks like the bus is early…"

"No!! I won't allow this, Jo-kun! You can't go!!" She clung to his arm stubbornly, crying.

"Okaa-sama, please behave yourself!!" He growled, tossing her away from him and into the awaiting arms of a few maids. His light green eyes stared at her firmly, "I'm _going_ to Saint Fordé's. I have already done all of the paperwork and signed up, I just need to get there in time for the entrance ceremony later on today."

He turned his back on her, eyes closed, "_Sayonara_, Okaa-sama. I'll write to you… when I feel like it."

The double doors at the entrance of the house were pulled open for him as he exited, the same butler from before following behind him with his luggage. Jinsei Kisaki watched them go, fighting against the strong grips her maids had on her.

"NO!!! DON'T GO! DON'T GO!! JO-KUN!!!"

Johan did not bother looking back or waving at her as the doors were closed; he simply sighed in relief when he was met with a questioning gaze from the butler.

He smiled, "Please, put the bags on the bus. I'll be there in a moment."

The grey-haired man did as he was told, approaching the bus.

The Andersen boy, however, snuck over to the bushes and trees to the eastern side of the house, smiling down at his Spirit Bracelet. Over the course of the last ten years, he had been able to find six Spirit Gems. They glowed with a brilliance and warmth that only his true family could give off, but he looked to the empty space on the bracelet. A sad frown touched his lips as he realized that he had not found the seventh and final gem.

"**Rubi, rubi?"**

The blunette blinked, looking up to see his dearly beloved friend, Ruby Carbuncle. The purple squirrel-like spirit floated in place, blinking bright red eyes at him while its four ears twitched. It was smiling cheerily at him, knowing that he had been waiting for this day to come for a very long time.

"Aah… Ruby…" He smiled weakly, sadness reflecting in light green hues. He reached out a hand and petted the top of her head hesitantly, "I'm really sorry… I couldn't find your Spirit Gem before I had to go."

"**Bi?"** It made a confused expression at him, tilting its head.

"It means that I can't take you with me where I'm going… I'm sorry!" He said with difficulty, turning around and taking a few steps away.

"**Rubi! Rubi, rubi!"**

Ruby Carbuncle floated up to his side, looking up at him. Johan held onto her and put her back where she was previously, behind him.

"No, Ruby… You can't come with me anymore. It's… it's impossible." He cried softly, trying not to let anyone else hear him, "G… goodbye… Ruby…"

With that, he spun around and ran toward the bus, his bag bumping against his hip with every swift step he took. Eyes clamped shut in an attempt to quell the tears that quickly formed behind tightened eyelids; he could not look back. If he did, he did not know what he would do. Johan would simply have to believe that having all the other Crystal Beasts with him would make up for not having Ruby Carbuncle around.

Little did he know, however, was that Ruby had persistently hurried after him, phasing through his back and disappearing into the crystal-shaped ruby that hung on the necklace he never took off. It sparkled for a moment, but he never noticed.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

On that clear day in late July, several crowds of adults and their sons made their way into the newly built auditorium that stood behind the main office and cafeteria. Its tall, three-story silver-and-maroon structure was easy to see from the entrance gates of the campus. The remodeled sign out front read "St. Fordé's Catholic Academy for Boys" in blood red letters over a shiny silver background, a large red rose protruding upward from between the words 'Catholic' and 'Academy.'

On the third floor of the auditorium was a large balcony that reached out over the main building, almost like an elevated outdoor ballroom. Among few other students socializing there, a certain brunette stood alone with his arms folded over the outer railing, chocolate brown eyes watching as newcomers entered the school grounds.

There was an almost longing look on his face, as if he had been waiting for something, or some_one_, for a very long time.

Though tense as the moment felt to him, an arm suddenly slipped passed his shoulder and curled around his neck, yanking him backward into someone's chest.

"Hey, Aniki!! What're you doin' lookin' all serious like that, don? Y'gotta lighten up, saurus!" a rather strong-looking sophomore laughed good-naturedly as he held the older boy in a headlock.

"Aah!! Kenzan, I think you're overdoing it!! Let him go already!" a short teen with a huge bush of light turquoise hair squeaked in panic, light grey eyes watching with concern behind clear circular glasses.

"Aww, he's alright, don! Aren't you, Ani—" the teen with long cornrows began to ask, but was unexpectedly elbowed in the stomach.

The boy they called their '_Aniki_' easily got out of the blackette's grasp and turned to pull _him_ into a headlock, laughing all the while, "Nice try, Tyranno, but looks like I win this time, too, huh?"

"Aagh! Aah—alright, you win, saurus! Just lemme go, don!"

As he was released, the older boy chuckled and straightened out his open, maroon red blazer. Beneath the jacket, he wore a black T-shirt with a pair of white slacks. The emblem of a rose had been etched into the breast of his coat, as with his companions'.

He ran his right hand through his messy brown-and-orange hair, putting his vacant left hand into his pocket, "So what're you guys up to? Shouldn't you be helping downstairs?"

"Well…" the small junior began, but was interrupted by Kenzan Tyranno.

"Sho and I already finished handing out the brochures that they gave us, so we came up here to find you, don! There's a hilarious rumor going around that a certain somebody didn't pass last year, don."

As the sophomore was about to elaborate, two students started running towards them from the inside of the auditorium's third floor corridor. One of them had rather dark skin and straight black hair, while the other was very tall with long brown hair. The first teen wore a white St. Fordé vest that had red linings, which contrasted with the oldest of the group's bottom-of-the-class buttoned-up blazer.

The three boys tried to keep their chuckling to themselves, but, in the end, could not contain themselves as they burst out into laughter. When the two newcomers had made their way to them, the tallest one folded his arms and pouted.

"C'mon!! It's not _that_ funny!"

"Fubuki! How the hell did you flunk in a _Catholic_ school, don?" Kenzan laughed aloud, pulling his white bandana over his face to wipe tears from his eyes.

The eighteen-year-old smiled sheepishly as he scratched at the back of his head a little, "Heh… I was a little distracted by the girls…"

"Huh? But we're in an all-boys academy…" Sho Marufuji mumbled once he had calmed down, confused by what the senior had said.

"What the… Aren't we supposed to be practicing abstinence in that department, saurus?" the blackette asked, still trying to keep from laughing any harder.

"What's your point?"

The three boys just stared at his cheery smile, but it had been Kenzan to break the awkward silence by slapping his hand over his forehead, "Aw, God help you… No wonder they held you back, don."

Fubuki Tenjoin settled for laughing at their expressions, "Don't look like that! My failure only means that I get to stay another year with you guys! And Zane's still around, too!"

Everyone in the group, save for the two brunettes, looked at him as though they had just seen the spawn of Satan sprout out of his nose. It was then that his amusement died, an eyebrow arching as his face asked the question he did not need to ask out loud.

"D-don't tell me Zane failed, too, don!" Kenzan shouted in disbelief.

"If Zane failed, then there's no hope for us! NO HOPE!!" Sho cried, pulling at his hair in his state of dread.

Fubuki's dark companion faced the brown-and-orange-haired junior and asked curiously, "Why aren't you freaked out about this, Judai?"

Judai Yuki blinked at him, but grinned guiltily, "Ah… well, y'see… I was talking to Zane over the summer and he said he was going to take a job as a teacher's aide here."

"… Why didn't you say that earlier?" the little blunette asked, teary-eyed.

"Because I wanted to see you guys sweat!" He admitted, laughing.

"Damn it, Aniki! That wasn't cool, saurus!" Kenzan barked, hopping forward and grabbing at him.

Judai easily spun out of the way, swinging his right arm around the underclassman's neck to hold him in place and give him a noogie, "Better luck next time!"

Fubuki smiled at the sight of Judai's playfulness, mumbling to himself, "Same ol' Judai…"

Austin O'Brien looked down at his watch, stiffening, "Crap… You guys, the ceremony's going to start in a few minutes! We need to get down there!"

Four of the boys started running off toward the entrance to the third floor, but Sho slowed down to look back toward the railing.

"Aniki…?"

The brunette shrugged and motioned for him to get going, "I'll be there soon. Save me a seat, okay, Sho?"

"Right… Okay, Judai."

With that, Judai was left alone on the ballroom-sized balcony.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

The auditorium building, though huge on the inside, had two other floors. There were no rooms on these floors, for they were simply corridors that led around the entire circumference of the building. The inner walls of the hallways were decorated with large square windows that looked out into the auditorium, so if there was no room in the actual auditorium, one could simply go to the second or third floor halls to watch from there.

Judai Yuki was still on the third floor, but instead of standing out on the balcony, he was watching the orientation from one of the windows. He leaned against the windowsill, arms folded.

"There sure are a lot of newbies this year…" He chuckled to himself when he realized that there were more than just a few unfamiliar faces sitting in the rows of chairs below him.

As he scanned the crowds, it did not take him very long to come across the area his groups of friends were sitting in. His friends all had naturally odd hair colors or styles, and the easiest of them all to spot was, of course, Sho Marufuji's. He chuckled at how weird they must have seemed to the International students from countries like France or Mexico; they probably thought that they dyed their hair.

The little blunette must have somehow figured he was being watched, for he had looked around for a moment before looking up at him and shaking his head with an exasperated sigh. He picked up his right hand and motioned for the fellow junior to come down in the auditorium and join them, mouthing "_hurry up_" to him.

Judai rolled his eyes and grinned, taking off into a sprint down the corridor. There were only two spiral staircases leading down to the second floor hallways and they were on opposite corners. He made his way to the closest one and hurried forth, hopping two steps at a time. Placing his hands on the railings to either side of him, he jumped the final five steps down and stomped onto the carpeted floor. Now, he just had to go to the other end of the hall ahead of him so that he could get to the ground floor.

The moment he took three running steps away from the stairs, he felt the presence of another near him. Stopping in place, he turned his head toward the opposite corridor, only to see somebody he really, _really_ wished he had not.

"Hey, Yuki! What's the hurry?" a rather hefty junior with a nearly shaved head asked slowly, arms folded over his maroon red jacket.

_Crap! It's one of his cronies!_ The brunette cursed mentally, trying his best to not show that he knew what was likely to happen. Without replying, he turned and rushed down the hall again, knowing that his speed was _well_ beyond the other boy's. _He won't catch me, and as soon as I get to the first floor, I'll be sa—_

Judai's thought was cut short when he suddenly felt something knock all of the air out of him. He had cringed inward, looking down to see a familiar pair of baggy blue jeans covering the knee that was holding his stomach in one spot. Wincing, he gradually raised his head to see another threatening-looking teen with a similar haircut to the others.

"Sh-_shit_…" he mumbled as he staggered back into the wall opposite of the inner auditorium window, _I should've known that if one loser popped up, the other was bound to follow… All that leaves is for _him_ to show up._

And, as if on cue, unhurried foot drops came from the direction of the staircase he had previously tried to reach. The clinking of pocket chains echoed in the near-silence of the hallway, instantly informing everyone in the immediate vicinity of who was there.

The brunette coughed as quietly as he could, hoping that none of the others would hear him; it would only egg them on. His right arm curled around his stomach as he stood hunched over, his other hand sliding up the wall in an attempt to give him support of balance. One of his chocolate brown eyes was still closed shut to keep from watering, but the other was open to look at the late arrival.

"¿_Qué paso, qué paso_? What'chu up to, Yuki?" the dark-tanned teen asked casually with a strong Spanish accent, slowly drawing nearer.

Once Judai had managed to get his breathing under control, he managed to glare at his curly-haired nemesis, his name dropping off of his lips like split poison, "_Santiago_…"

He took a moment to look to his left side, back the way he had come, but it seemed that Goon #1 was blocking the way back to the third floor. Goon #2 was standing directly opposite him against the window wall, and their leader was closing the distance between them just a little too fast to be walking so leisurely.

It did not look like he would be getting out of there unscathed.

"Hey, _Ese_! I asked you a _question_!!" Santiago Aguilar barked more aggressively as he quickly charged forward, grabbing the Japanese American by the shoulders and shoving him up straight into the wall, "Shouldn't you be at the ceremony with your buddies?"

Judai held back a growl, trying to remain as outwardly stoic as he could. Even though his shoulders were aching from the collision with the barrier behind him, he did his best to keep his pain to himself.

"I was on my way there until _you_ showed up." He replied nonchalantly.

As expected, his lack of outer emotion angered the bully. Santiago snatched him by the collar of his black T-shirt and yanked him up so that they were eye-to-eye, "¿_Qué es eso_? Y'don't gotta talk to me like that… ¡_Pensé que éramos amigos_! Y'make it seem like y'didn't wanna see me."

_When the hell were we ever friends?_ The brunette thought, eye twitching before he finally snapped in annoyance, "Did one of your losers drop a few Bibles on your head?"

Although he believed that he was going to get hit again, he was caught by surprise when the bully let go of him and backed up. The shaggy black-haired boy held his hands up to show that he was not going to do anything.

"Okay, Ese, y'got me. Truth is that I heard you got somethin' nice from the _cerdo barbudo_." He admitted aloud, casting his gaze of ice blue eyes over toward the window.

"Yeah…" Judai replied slowly, not particularly fond of how he called Principal Shepherd a _bearded pig_ all the time. Still, he did not understand where the other was going with the conversation, if it could even be called one.

Santiago snapped his fingers, motioning with his hand, "I want it. Hand it over. You and I both know we don't gotta get rough, so jus' give it to us now and we won't do nothing."

The chocolate-eyed junior rolled his eyes; so _that_ had been why he had brought henchmen. As usual, the Aguilar teen was trying to intimidate him, though it was not working this time around, "No way. Do you really think I'd give it to you, just like that? Besides, you won't like it anyway, so just let me go already."

"_Yuki_," Santiago called firmly, warning him with a wag of his finger, "Don't mess with me, 'ight? Y'know what I'm capable of."

Judai scoffed, "Pfft! Yeah, you're capable of sicking your pet henchmen on everybody you don't like. You never even lift a finger. How sad…"

The Mexican American boy rushed forth and took him by the collar again, growling with anger glowing in his icy eyes. Judai simply smirked and went on.

"And what kind of name is '_Santiago_?' I hear there are _girls_ born with that name."

The rage on the dark-haired bully's face seemed to melt away after a few seconds, a cold smirk on his tanned face, "_Sí, pero _¿_qué pasa con _tu_ nombre_? Isn't your name a letter away from that _one_ disciple's? Y'know, the one that betrayed the Son of God, Jesus Christ?"

Judai Yuki was stunned by the other's response, unable to come up with a comeback. All he could do was stare in disbelief and realization; why had he not noticed this before?

Santiago laughed diabolically before pushing the slightly shorter boy against the wall and leaning in close to his ear, "And didn't he _hang_ himself because he couldn't stand living with the guilt, and seeing devils everywhere? Do you want me to do the favor for you…? I wouldn't mind."

His voice was a wicked whisper as his hands slid from Judai's shoulders toward his neck, fingers just _itching_ to wrap around his throat and cut off his oxygen.

But Judai was still frozen his place, body trembling with fright; the similarities between himself and Judas Iscariot were… _frightening_, to say the least. However, he had been born with the ability to see the spirits of the dead; he had not committed a heinous crime against the Lord his God… He had not done anything _that_ bad…

… right?

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Sho Marufuji sighed, reading over the brochure in his hands. The entrance ceremony had already begun and his best friend was still nowhere to be found. His grip on the informative papers unconsciously tightened as his big grey eyes shined with worry.

"Aniki… _doko_…?"

Fubuki Tenjoin's facial expression mirrored the little junior's before he cast a glance upward to the second floor corridor. Amber eyes went wide at the sight, but a serious look formed on his face as he leaned away from Sho and toward the teen sitting to his left side. He softly nudged the teal-haired boy, effectively getting his attention.

"Zane, looks at the second floor. Right side. You see what I see?"

Zane Truesdale raised his gaze from his best friend to the second floor, only to narrow his eyes at what he saw, "Santiago again? I guess I'll have to go up there and—"

"… and now, let me introduce a former star student of our dear Saint Fordé's Catholic Academy, who has agreed to stay as a teacher's aide… Zane Truesdale!" Principal Shepherd introduced aloud into the microphone, the crowd applauding.

The tear-haired teacher's aide cursed quietly, mumbling to Fubuki grudgingly as he got up from his seat, "I'll leave you to go handle it."

"Roger!" the copper brown-haired senior confirmed with a two-finger salute before also standing up and hurrying out the side exit.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

A light teal-haired teen sighed as he made his way up the spiral staircase, silently wondering who in their right mind had created so many long cases of swirling stairs in all of the buildings. He had read all about the school from its official website, and everything that the newspapers had to say about it, but he had somehow figured he would be able to handle the daily exercise.

Well, his legs were not _nearly_ as strong as his upper build; that much, he was certain of.

Light green eyes stared down at a brochure in his hand; he knew that he had to be in the auditorium, and he knew that he was _in_ the auditorium, but where was everybody else?

_What kind of auditorium has stairs leading to another _floor_?!_ Johan Andersen whined in his mind as he finally stepped onto the second floor, _Jeez, this is tiring…_

He looked around, noticing the window walls and seeing the crowds of people sitting down on the first floor. His eye twitched as he threw down the brochure onto the floor and stomped on it.

"For the love of God, I have to go back down _there_?!!"

Evil laughter rang through the hallway, making his griping come to an abrupt halt. Looking further down the way, he noticed two Hispanic teens laughing with each other while another one seemed to be holding a Japanese American to the wall by his… neck?!

Johan gasped quietly and quickly ran forward, "HEY!! Leave that kid alone!!"

"¡_No intente ser un héroe, Perdedor_!" The boy choking the brunette against the wall hissed dangerously at him.

His two lackeys stepped in between their leader and the newcomer, ready to defend. Johan growled as he pulled back his right fist and socked one into the solid wall and then gave the other one a rather powerful left hook. Swiftly, he shoved the both of them out of his way and yanked the Mexican American away from the victim of the situation, spinning around and slamming him face-first into the wall.

"_AAGH_!!" the black-haired boy cried out, scrambling to his feet as his minions hurried to his side, "¡_Esto no ha terminado_! We'll be back, Man!!"

With that, they all ran down the hallway to the staircase leading up to the third floor.

Johan Andersen cracked his knuckles, watching them until they disappeared. He sighed deeply, running a hand through his spiky blue hair, "_Man_, that was weird…"

The brunette behind him coughed harshly, the fingers of his right hand touching his throat tenderly. One chocolate brown eye was winced closed; a bitter taste in his mouth.

_Oh, right! The kid!_ The blunette remembered, about to turn around and ask if he was alright when a possibility hit him. He smacked his forehead, cursing mentally, _Damn it! What if those guys tell on me? Okaa-sama'll get wind of it and then she might make me go back home because '_it's too dangerous'_ here. Aagh…_

"Aah… Thanks for helping me, Man; they might've killed me if you didn't show up." The Japanese American boy said aloud, standing up straight with a slight scratch in his voice.

Johan turned around slowly to face him, but his eyes went wide in surprise upon seeing his hair, _Brown… and orange…?_ Why was that so familiar to him? His gaze went to his face, seeing a cheery smile and milk chocolate eyes fixed on him. He could feel the blood rush to his cheeks, but he quickly shut his eyes and turned his back to him.

_I can't get involved with a guy like this… No wonder he's a bully magnet._ He thought before saying as nonchalantly as he could aloud, "Yeah, whatever. Just… try not to be so troublesome, Kid."

_**PANG!!**_ Judai Yuki stiffened when he heard the word… the word which plagued his mind and heart since childhood. His eye started to twitch continually and visibly, his teeth grinding together as he growled. He pushed himself forward with his right leg and jerked the other's shoulder around, only to grab his white turtleneck collar and pull him down.

"_Don't_ call me _troublesome_." Venom dripped off of his words as he tried to speak calmly.

Johan was not intimidated and took the other's wrist, ripping it away from him and glaring right down into his face, "I'll _call_ you troublesome if I _think_ you're troublesome. Not back off, y'_troublesome_ kid!"

"DON'T CALL ME TROUBLESOME, Y'BLUE-HAIRED FREAK!!" the brunette shouted at the top of his lungs, punching at the other with his vacant fist.

The blunette took the hit to his cheek, but shrugged it off quickly and punched the other right on back, successfully making him stumble backward a few steps. Judai spun around in a full circle and seemed to attempt throwing a punch, so Johan tried to block it, but Judai picked up his leg and kicked him in the side. Johan winced, falling against the wall.

_Damn it… This guy's got strong legs…_ He thought before getting back into the game and trying to grab him into a headlock.

Judai ducked out of the way and headbutted him in the stomach, sending them both down onto the ground. The stronger of the two in upper body strength easily turned them over so that the blunette sat on top, about to throw several punches down into the other boy's face, when a yell from back toward the first floor staircase shattered the moment.

"HEY!!"

Johan turned to look over his shoulder while Judai picked up his head to take a peek. The copper brown-haired senior had just arrived and was quickly approaching them.

"Fubuki, stay back! I'm gonna take this loser _down_!!" Judai declared as he shoved the other off of him and tried to take a swipe at his already injured cheek.

"Not before I take _you_ down first!!" Johan snapped back, blocking easily by catching his fist in the air.

"YOU TWO NEED TO COOL IT!!" Fubuki Tenjoin finally screamed, effectively holding the two teens away from each other with his rather long arms reach, "Jeez, what sparked this? I came up here to help Judai against Santiago, only to find a new kid fighting with him instead… Anybody wanna explain?"

The blunette pulled his shoulder out of the upperclassman's grip and shut his eyes, "Hmph… I don't need to explain anything to anybody…" With that he started for the stairway again, leaving Fubuki to hold Judai back from going after him again.

The junior growled angrily, stomping his foot on the ground, "I _hate_ that guy!! Who the hell _was_ he?!!"

"Beats me… but I guess we'll find out tomorrow on the first day, huh?" Fubuki shrugged, _What kind of first impression was that? I hope that guy's not gonna be a problem…_


	9. 02 : Revelation

disclaimer: Emerald Twin Blade does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or any of the characters in the fic that you recognize from the show. She does, however, own a handful of characters.

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

Sorry for the wait, Guys! It actually only took me 3 days to finish writing this, but I seriously took my time even starting it. XD I'm done now, though, so that's all that matters now, right?

Oh, but here's a little contest, yeah! The person who sends me the 90th Review for this entire story will get to choose their favorite scene from this fic and I'll draw it out for them. _Or_ they could chose to have me draw a scene in the far-off future of this fic, though, either way the piece of FanArt will be posted publicly on deviantArt. XP It's a basic dedication. X3

I had lots of fun writing this chapter! And because I had so much fun, it was easy to finish it. I could have finished it yesterday, but I felt faint, so I had to stop and go to sleep. Unfortunately, I have gotten a bit sick, so if you find any mistakes, please tell me in your Review. I'm having a hard time noticing stuff, even more that usual. XD

* * *

**: ****Fragment No.02**** : Revelation** – _A New Star Student_

Thick streams of daylight lit up the dorm room, no curtains drawn to keep them out of the small living area. A digital alarm clock sat on the bedside table, bright red numbers reading **06:29 AM**.

Although, normally, the maroon red bed sheets atop the mattress would be crumpled and piled up over a large lump, this was not the case that morning. Judai Yuki, a seventeen-year-old Junior, was sitting up in bed, the sheets covering his legs, which were folded up Indian-style. He had leaned forward, his elbow on his right knee while his hand held his cheek and chin in place. Chocolate brown eyes scanned over his dorm room, noticing how much it had changed over the past decade that he had inhabited it.

He still had a regular-sized bed, big enough that his feet would not fall off the edge of it when lying down flat and straight. His bedside table, wardrobe, dresser, and desk were still in the same place, but there were several papers and folders scattered over the top of his working area. A small mini-fridge had been brought in a few years back, placed conveniently at the corner of the room and to the right of the desk.

The brunette sighed, picking up his left hand to scratch at his brown and orange hair while his right reached over to the alarm clock. Just as the numbers turned from 29 to 30 and the ear-splitting buzzer rung, he easily pressed the button that would turn it off. With the room quiet again, all he did was stare down at his lap as he placed his hands over the sheets.

_He didn't… come for me this year either…_ He thought forlornly, a weak smile pulling the sides of his lips upward a bit.

Ever since Judai had first come to Saint Fordé's Catholic Academy for Boys, even though he had made wonderful friends, he was continually waiting and hoping for the day that his childhood best friend would appear to him again. It had been ten long years, so time had decided to play a cruel game of erosion with his memories. He could no longer remember his special friend as well as he used to, and all that he knew for sure was the nickname that he, his mother, and his friend's family had called him.

"Jo-kun…" He mumbled inaudibly, his fingers clenching around the bed sheets tightly, "Why haven't you tried to contact me…?" Chocolate eyes slowly turned to gaze out the window into the clear blue sky, "Why haven't… you come to _get_ me?"

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Several students dressed in maroon or white uniforms flooded the halls, making their way to their classes for the morning. Judai Yuki was among them, but though he held his schoolbag loosely over his shoulder, he was staring up at the ceiling distractedly.

"Aniki!!" a high-pitched voice called from behind him.

Judai blinked, stopping abruptly and turning slightly to look over his shoulder. His best friend Sho Marufuji was hurrying toward him, turquoise hair bouncing up and down with every attempt at a long, jumping step that he took. The brunette could not help the grin that curled onto his face as he chuckled at how silly the shorter junior looked as he swung his book bag to and fro.

"Ha, ha… _Ohayo_, Sho." He greeted, grinning widely.

"_Ohayo gozaimasu_, Aniki! Where were you this morning? We ate breakfast without you!"

All the chocolate-eyed teen could do was shrug as he continued walking down the hallway, the little blunette following along beside him, "I just… wasn't hungry today."

"Y-you weren't hungry? _You_?" Sho raised a questioning eyebrow, "Does this have anything to do with what happened yesterday? I heard from Fubuki that there was a fight, but he didn't let on any details, so…"

Judai sighed deeply, feeling his right eye twitch at the memory, "It… was nothing too big. I was just on my way down to the auditorium when I ran into Santiago and his goons."

He froze for a split second, an icicle of fear poking his heart when he recalled how his nemesis had compared him to Judas Iscariot. Gulping, he managed to continue without his voice shaking, and eventually forgetting about that minor incident.

"They tried to take me down, but then," Again, he paused, his eye twitching again in annoyance when he remembered what happened next, "some new guy showed up and scared them all away."

Sho breathed a sigh of relief, "Haa… Is that right? Did you remember to thank him?"

The brunette scoffed, rolling his eyes to look over to the right side of the ceiling as they walked, "Tch, yeah, I thanked him… And then that jerk went and started a fight with me."

"A fight?! You got into a fight??"

With how loudly the Marufuji boy had exclaimed, Judai had to stop himself from slapping his hand over his mouth. He did, however, pull his index finger to his face and hiss "shhh!" at him.

"Dude, not so loud! If the staff catches wind of this, I'll get in trouble again."

"But, Aniki… you got into a _fight_! It's a normal thing for this to happen with Santiago, but with someone you just met?" the blunette frowned up at him, "And you say _he_ started the fight, right?"

Judai thought for a moment, thinking back to that moment.

"Don't _call me _troublesome_."_

"_I'll _call_ you troublesome if I _think_ you're troublesome. Now back off, y'_troublesome_ kid!"_

"_DON'T CALL ME TROUBLSOME, Y'BLUE-HAIRED FREAK!!"_

He grinned stupidly, "Heh… Okay, maybe I did start the fight…"

"Aniki." Sho slapped his forehead, eyes shut as he shook his head.

"What? He called me 'troublesome!!' What else was I gonna do?"

"Most people would've ignored him! What is it with you and that word?"

Judai shook his head and put his hands behind his head, still loosely holding onto his bag, "It's nothing you have to know about…"

Sho made a concerned look at the older boy before changing the subject slightly, "Okay, then… What did Santiago want this time?"

The brunette thought back again and chuckled, "He said that he wanted what Principal Shepherd gave me last week; probably thought that it was an award or something. It's actually just a photograph."

"A picture? Of who?" the little junior asked, tilting his head.

The two came to a stop in the corridor and stepped out of the way of traffic as Judai pulled out the slightly folded, glossy photograph that was given to him previously. A woman with long pumpkin orange hair stood centered with her left hand on her hip and her right holding a basket of what seemed to be towels. Golden honey eyes sparkled cheerily at the camera as a brilliant smile graced her lips.

"It's a picture of my mom, Sho… a _recent_ one." He explained, smiling softly at the photograph, "I don't know how Principal Shepherd got a hold of this, but… I'm really, really glad to know that my mom is alright."

Sho already knew about how long it had been since Judai had seen his mother; after all, he himself went back to visit his legal guardian, who was his aunt, during the school vacations, while his best friend was always forced to stay on campus.

Looking to the picture in his friend's hand, Sho smiled, too, looking up at his face and saying, "So this is your mom! You two have the same smile."

Judai felt a pleasant warmth in his chest upon hearing the compliment, his cheeks reddening slightly as he smiled brightly like his mother in the picture at the blunette, "Really? Y'think so?"

"Yeah, I do." The Marufuji boy replied, delicately plucking the photo out of the other's hand and looking closely at it, "It's a really dreamy, girlie smile, so you have to watch out for the guys who mistake you for a girl! Be really careful, Aniki!"

"Aagh, _shut_ up!" the older junior laughed, tossing his left arm around Sho's shoulders and shaking him playfully.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

The Algebra II classroom was filled with several juniors, and even a couple of sophomores. Everyone had someone to talk to, if not to pick on, but this was because everyone in the school already knew each other. Even though the population of the school was easily somewhere over a thousand, one could not walk two feet without recognizing someone's face, though they did not have to remember their name.

Sho Marufuji sat in the second-to-last row from the back of the room, the column at the center. To his left sat a hunched-over Judai Yuki with arms folded over the desk and his head laid on top of them. It was obvious to anyone with eyes that he had dozed off during the last few minutes before class would start, but Judai was known for sleeping through entire _lessons_.

The blunette shook his head, a small grin on his face as he opened up his brand new notebook and took his maroon red fountain pen from a pencil case attached to his book bag. Grey eyes scanned the rest of the room for anyone else they knew, easily spotting the always-smart, never-wrong, White-and-Blue Daichi Misawa standing by one of the three bookshelves on the left side of the room and conversing with a White-and-Red Taigo Sorano. Looking to the other side of the room, he found the fellow Red-and-White Austin O'Brien to be sitting in a desk at the center of the first row and successfully ignoring two White-and-Reds who were trying to talk to him.

Sho sighed, noticing how much the uniform color system added to the already large problem of prejudice at the Catholic school. Several White-and-Blues tended to bully the red-and-whites for simply wearing their uniform. Some of them had even been unfortunate enough to pick a fight with his best friend and _lose_, which mostly put an end to any bullying to Judai and his friends.

The only person who persistently provoked Judai was Santiago Aguilar, but he was a Red just like them. His prejudice, however, did not lie in the colors of the uniforms, but actual racial differences. It was a complete mystery as to why the Mexican American boy held such hatred toward Japanese Americans. He was alright with the French, English, and even Australian students who attended the school, but it was only the Japanese that he had a problem with.

The blunette tried his best to keep looking anywhere but toward Santiago, who sat in the first column and the very back of the room. He already knew that if they were to lock eyes, he could expect to get beat up, the same way he had several years ago.

_**Creeeeak! SLAM!**_

The students in the room suddenly fell silent, those who were not seating walking to an empty desk and sitting down. Daichi Misawa approached Sho and gave him a smile in greeting before taking the seat in front of him. Again, the little junior looked around the room, noting that there was an empty desk behind his best friend before looking back to the front of the room toward the teacher.

Professor Kouji Satou stood behind the podium at the front of the class, harshly turning his head so that his long, midnight black hair would not sit over his shoulder. He brought his right hand up and, with his index and middle fingers, pushed his large, round glasses up the bridge of his nose. Dark blue eyes watched the class of students uninterestedly as he slammed his hand on top of the podium and used his vacant one to motion toward the entrance and exit to the room.

"Well, as you all know already, I'm your Algebra II teacher for the semester. The interesting thing about this introduction is that we seem to have a new student joining us." He explained, anger sloppily hidden behind his calm voice.

The door opened once again, though slowly. All of the boys in the room, except for the one who was fast asleep, stared at the doorway as a tall, unfamiliar blunette entered.

The light teal blue-haired junior wore a White-and-Blue sleeveless turtleneck, the colors of his uniform showing that, even though he was a new student, he was predicted to become one of the top students in the class. A slightly nervous grin sat on his face as he scratched his cheek with his right index finger and held his book bag with his left.

Sho watched with interest; a new student in the junior section? _You don't see those everyday…_ He thought, agreeing with himself before realizing that his best friend was still fast asleep and missing everything.

He cautiously leaned over to his left side and shook his fellow Red's shoulder, "Aniki! Aniki, wake up!"

"Nngeh…" Judai Yuki groaned in irritation before picking up his head and looking from left to right, whining, "What gives?"

"Come over here and introduce yourself, Son." Professor Satou commanded almost immediately, but in his attempt to stop himself, his voice cracked.

The entire class jumped at such a voice from the usually calm and mellow teacher; the new guy quickly jogged over to stand beside the teacher and the podium.

Judai, once he had effectively gotten rid of the groggy fog over his mind, snapped into full awareness and lowered himself in his seat to somehow keep the new student from spotting him in the sea of sitting boys.

_Shit! It's that jerk from yesterday!_

The blunette bowed his head slightly to his classmates, "My name is Johan and I just transferred to Saint Fordé's recently. I was the top of my class at my old school, but that might not be saying much since I was home-schooled…"

Everyone laughed at his silly joke, but the teacher, still identifiably angry, pointed out the empty desk in the last row, "Just go sit down…"

The brunette froze, mentally screaming at how Professor Satou was pointing right at him. To his right, Sho whispered that the only empty seat in the room was the one behind him. Judai paled, sinking further where he sat; it was _just_ his luck that the new guy would have to sit behind him.

As Johan made his way up the column toward his desk, he smirked cruelly at the two-tone Red. Upon passing him, he sat down casually, leaving Judai to think he might be left alone for that period of the day.

Judai reluctantly straightened himself in his chair, jumping slightly when he felt the vibration of the blunette slamming his boots into the metal basket beneath his desk. He winced, groaning inwardly as he leaned his head down until _**THUNK!**_ It collided with the desktop in front of him.

This Johan guy was going to make his school life _Hell_.

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Once the actual class had started, only a handful of students were paying attention. The rest seemed to be focused on how strange it was to have a new student transfer into the school so late in their education. Johan, however, seemed to be ignoring the stares he was receiving, in favor of listening in on the first lesson of the year.

When the black-haired teacher turned around to face his students, he stopped and stared at how over half of the boys had the back of their heads to him and their eyes glued to the blunette. He clenched his fist tightly around his black, dry erase Expo marker, his anger doubling to the point that it was completely audible in his voice as he shouted.

"IS THERE SOMETHING MORE INTERESTING AT THE BACK OF THE ROOM?!!"

Santiago Aguilar leaned back in his chair, one hand behind his head while the other ran through his curly hair. His icy blue eyes looked off toward the door longingly, but he still spoke aloud in reply to the troubled professor.

"_El chico nuevo seguro es algo interesante_… Maybe you should sit him in the front so everybody'll look in your direction."

Professor Satou looked like he was about to snap the plastic marker in half, but he simply turned around to face the board and erased everything Algebra II-related that he had written on it.

"I can only infer that everyone here doesn't believe that they need to learn Algebra II! Well, why don't we take it up a notch? Or perhaps even two!" He wrote the word **SINE** on the whiteboard, big enough for everyone to see, "Can anyone tell me what the derivative of sine is? Anyone? Anyone??"

Every boy in the room looked to one-another, wondering if anyone knew the answer. Daichi Misawa, the Brain of the school, smiled knowingly and slowly brought his hand up to get the attention of the professor; he would proudly answer the question, as usual.

"I know it!" a voice from the back of the room said.

Once again, everyone turned around to look at Johan, who had his hand raised up straight with a hopeful look on his face. Misawa's hand, not high enough to see, went limp and fell back down onto the desk as indigo blue eyes stared at the new kid in disbelief.

"Is that so? Tell me, Johan; what do you think the answer is?" Professor Satou asked mockingly, doubting that the other knew.

The blunette smiled as he answered, "It's cosine, right?"

"N—yes… Yes, the answer _is_ cosine," the teacher said slowly, his anger having dissolved completely, "But, how did—Aagh, it's no matter…"

He straightened the collar of his white work shirt before erasing the word from the board and writing **x²**, "Next question… What is the derivative of X squared?"

This time, Misawa raised his hand quickly and answered without being called on, "The derivative of X squared is two X!"

"Correct." The teacher wrote **= 2x** beside the **x²** before writing **√x **and asking aloud, "What is the _anti_-derivative of the square root of x?"

Two hands shot up into the air, both students standing up from their seats and replying in unison, "Two-thirds X to the power of three over two!!"

"What formula did you use?"

"X to the power of N plus one over N plus one!" Again, the midnight black-haired genius and the light teal blue-haired student spoke simultaneously.

Just as the two had stopped speaking, Taigo Sorano stood up and asked, "What are the numbers for pi?"

"Three point one four." Was all Johan said, light green eyes looking to Misawa when he chuckled triumphantly.

"Ah, but that's just the shortened form! The _entire_ numerical form for pi is actually three point one four one five nine two six five three five eight nine seven nine three two three eight four six two six four three three eight three two seven nine five zero two eight—"

Suddenly, there was clapping from the corner of the room, successfully interrupting the White-and-Blue student and attracting everyone's attention. Santiago sat with his hands clapping together slowly; when he stopped, he just laughed and said,

"_¡Ustedes dos son muy divertidos!_ But I think it'd be a good idea to get back to actually learning Algebra II, don't you?"

The rest of the boys, who had _no_ idea what was going on, agreed, all of them turning to face the front of the room and the professor. Sho looked to the Mexican American out the corner of his eye, wondering why he, of all people, would break up a competition that killed time during class.

Professor Satou was smiling at the two students who were quite knowledgeable in the ways of mathematics, touched that there were teenagers who would fight over smarts in such a way. He enthusiastically erased the Calculus problems from the whiteboard and began to write the easier, Algebra II math questions on it again.

"Now, then, what is the…"

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

Johan Andersen sighed as he walked calmly down the hallway of the Core Class Studies building, a small wave of relief washing over him. He seemed to have learned a thing or two from the tour he had taken with the freshmen the previous day. The Core Class Studies building stood to the left of the main building, and behind it stood the Extra Curricular building, which not only held the classrooms for electives but for clubs, as well.

"Ha, haa… Thank you, Lord, for helping me remember these things…" He mumbled with his face tilted up toward the ceiling and his eyes closed.

Having not been watching where he was going, he accidentally bumped his shoulder into that of a White-and-Red student. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed teen glared at him and swore in some other language before continuing on his way. The blunette could only guess that the other had said something like "_watch where you're going_."

Looking downward, he noticed that he had dropped his schoolbag, which had popped open and let his math and history books, along with his notebooks, fall out. He whined quietly to himself, kneeling down to straighten his bag.

"Hey, you don't use that kind of language during school hours, Ansgar!" a deep voice scolded someone behind him.

Johan turned to look over his shoulder, finding a man with long dark teal hair in a long black coat that had white linings reprimanding the guy he had run into.

"Ah, _ich entschuldige mich_, Zane." The German American boy, Ansgar, apologized with a slight bow of his head before leaving.

The junior blinked, watching for a moment longer than he should have. The older blunette looked to him, a small, pleasant smile on his face. Johan could feel heat rise in his cheeks as he quickly looked back down to his fallen books and hurried to scoop them back up into his bag.

The man took a few steps toward him, bending to pick up the other's U.S. History I book. He snickered quietly to himself as he came closer and held it out to him, "I think it's fair for you to know… that Mr. Bonaparte's history class is a full-on lecture course. You won't need your textbook in the room."

Johan took the book and slid it into his book bag, having finally gotten everything back into it. Light green eyes looked up into dark teal ones.

"Thanks. Err… are you in his class, too?" _He looks a little old to be a student…_

"Heh… I suppose you could say that… I'm the new teacher's aide, Zane Truesdale. I graduated from this school last year, but I'm staying to help out for a while." The much taller teen replied, amusement twinkling in his eyes.

The lighter-haired blunette looked up at the ceiling for a moment in thought, "That's cool… but am I supposed to call you Mr. Truesdale…?"

Zane laughed aloud, clapping his right hand over Johan's shoulder and leading him into the classroom to their right, "There's no need for that. Just call me Zane; everybody does."

The U.S. History I room was significantly larger than the Algebra II room had been. It looked like a mini auditorium, but it was actually a standard lecture room with several rows of long tables and screwed-in spinning chairs. There were stairs leading up to the back row on either side of the room; by the amount of seats, one would assume that around 30 to 50 students could occupy the room comfortably.

With the ten minute break between classes coming to an end, most of the students assigned to that course were already inside. Again, Johan noticed the variety of different colored uniforms.

A certain copper-haired senior sat in the second row, casting an uninterested glance toward the door. Once amber brown eyes caught sight of the teacher's aide, his face lit up like a Christmas tree and his lips curled into a wide smile.

"Zane!!"

The dark teal-haired man turned in the direction of the call, only to find the brunette that he called his best friend clinging to his left arm. All outward emotion that had shown on his face before suddenly vanished, showing nothing but slight irritation on an otherwise blank expression.

Johan noticed his skin lose some of its color and how he instantly lost the friendly glow he had held only a minute or so earlier. Curious, light green hues looked over to the Red-and-White clad senior that had clamped onto his new friend's shoulder. Upon spotting his hair color, a unique shade of light copper, and his eyes, light brown but not quite gold, he effortlessly identified who he was and that they had met before.

_That's the guy who broke up the fight yesterday._ He pointed out mentally, staring at him gracelessly, _Thinking back, I'm really glad he did… Getting in trouble and having a fight put down on my permanent record would _not_ be an achievement to be proud of._

The brunette, having realized he was being observed intently, connected his gaze with Johan's. A cheerfully bright grin was plastered to his face as he leaned away from Zane to have a better look at the younger blunette.

"Oh, and who do we have he—whoa! You're that kid from yesterday!"

The Andersen boy stiffened; what was he supposed to do now? If he had recognized the other, what in Heaven's name made him think it would not work the other way around?

Zane's gloomy disposition was replaced with one of interest as he raised an eyebrow at his friend, "You've met?"

"Of course!" the senior clarified, his grin widening, "He's the one that got into a f—"

Johan automatically began to laugh loudly, interrupting the other and stopping him from finishing his sentence, "Ah, yeah! We met yesterday, but I didn't get your name! Come to think of it, I didn't give you mine, either, did I?"

The two older boys stared at him, confused at his random outburst. The Red-and-White student, however, merely shrugged it off a second later and introduced himself merrily.

"I'm Fubuki Tenjoin, Saint Fordé's idol and very own Blizzard King!" He gave him a thumbs-up and winked as he stated a couple of his titles around the school, "Nice to meet you, … err…"

"Johan An—ah, I'm just Johan." The light-haired blunette smiled weakly, finding it hard to keep his family name to himself, _I can't tell anybody here that I'm an Andersen… They'll just want to be my friends because of my dad._

He could tell that Fubuki wanted to be nosy and ask what his last name was, but he thanked the good Lord above when Zane piped into the conversation.

"Well, Johan, don't pay too much attention to Fubuki. He was supposed to graduate last year with me, but didn't."

The brunette frowned and made puppy dog eyes at his best friend, whining while shaking his arm feebly, "That's not nice, Zane! Don't be advertising that to everybody!!"

Johan could not stop himself from grinning goofily and chuckling, "How do you fail in Catholic school?"

Fubuki felt a sense of déjà vu, vaguely recalling someone asking him the very same thing prior to that day. He was about to open his mouth to respond, but instead watched as Zane put his hands on either of Johan's shoulders from behind and steered him up to an empty seat in the first row.

"Don't answer that."

-------[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]-------

After second period U.S. History I had finally ended, Johan speedily packed up his lecture notes and pencils. Although he was more familiar with the campus that day than he had been the day before, he was still short on friends and someone to hang out with until he was completely settled into life at a private school. He hastily walked up to where Fubuki stood waiting for Zane to finish collecting his own set of notes from the short and stout Professor Napoleon Bonaparte.

Fubuki's eye pulled itself to his left, sensing someone there. Turning his head slightly and noticing Johan, he smiled in a friendly way at him, "What's up? Need something?"

"Ahm… W-would it be alright if I just hung out with you and Zane for lunch? Since I'm new, I haven't really made any other friends…" the junior explained sheepishly, cheeks bright red in embarrassment as he stared down at the carpeted floor of the lecture hall.

The brunette laughed aloud, running his right hand through his light copper locks, "I gotcha… And you can't really call Judai your friend, even though he was the first person you met yesterday, right?"

"Judai?" Johan blinked, trying to remember who it was that went by that name.

The annoying Red-and-White student who had picked that fight with him the day before came to mind, and he hazily remembered the genius from his Algebra II class calling the two tone-haired brunette by that name. His face contorted with slight disgust; how the _hell_ had that loser make friends with the Brain of the school?

"… from the look on your face, I'll take that as a '_yes, you're right, Fubuki_.'" Fubuki shook his head and winked, "It's alright, then, but don't be surprised when we get to the cafeteria, okay?"

"Huh?" Johan tilted his head and squinted one of his eyes a little, _What does he mean by 'surprised?'_

Before he could ask, Zane Truesdale had already approached the two of them, his binders held securely beneath his arm, "So, are we all going to lunch, or what?"

The brunette and the younger blunette grinned widely as they all started walking, exiting the room, and then the entire building. The walk to the main building was a relatively short one, though it was thanks to Fubuki's constant babbling about many different and random things, such as surfboards and baby rattles. Prior to meeting Fubuki, Johan might never have seen a connection between such items; it was quite fascinating, but also very amusing as Zane tried his best to either ignore or shut the senior up.

Upon reaching the cafeteria, the lunch line had been divided up into about five different lines, depending on what kind of food the students wanted to eat. Although it was the designated lunchtime of the school, there were people who showed up much earlier or much later to eat, so the lines, thankfully, were not as long as one might expect from an academy of over a thousand students.

Fubuki's amber eyes scanned over the food selection, wondering what he should get, "Aagh… It all looks so good! What're you gonna get, Johan?"

The junior was taken aback by the question, especially since it was his first time eating lunch there, "Uhh… I don't really care… What're you gonna get, Zane?"

He blushed embarrassedly, feeling a little bit nervous for having been put on the spot and repeating what his new friend had said.

"I'm gonna go for one of Tome's cheeseburgers… I don't know _what_ she does to those things, but they're good." Zane answered, staring up at the ceiling for a moment before closing his eyes and getting in the line for those with a taste of burgers.

"I guess I'll just get one of those, too!" Fubuki chuckled, hopping next to his best friend.

Johan looked around at the selection one more time, pausing when he spotted spaghetti and meatballs on the menu. He could feel himself salivating at the thought of eating it, so he hesitantly walked to the end of the line, standing there with his hands in his pockets and throwing a weak smile over to the other two.

"I'm in the mood for some spaghetti… Do you guys mind waiting up for me when you get your lunch?"

Zane just smiled while Fubuki winked, the failure of the two replying with a, "Don't sweat it! We won't leave you alone in this huge cafeteria!"

It was not long until Johan had made his way to the front of the line, a rather plain-looking cafeteria worker holding onto a tray and asking him how much spaghetti he wanted. The blunette was confused at first, but soon found that there were many different sized bowls one could choose from. His stomach wailed uncomfortably, making him wince just a bit at its loudness before he finally pointed at the biggest bowl. The bowl was then filled with the stringy noodles, chunky mushroom meat sauce, and the hand-rolled meatballs. Once handed the tray, along with a fork and a spoon, he walked away with a dreamy look in his eyes.

_Aah… I can eat as much as I want now that I'm out of the house!_ He chuckled to himself as he took a Dasani water bottle from the drinks table and strode over to his friends, "So where're we gonna sit?"

He did not receive an answer as Zane took off, Fubuki and Johan following after him. A faint snicker came from the brunette, attracting the junior's attention.

"What's so funny?"

The senior shook his head, "It's nothing."

Johan was a little skeptical, but decided not to press the matter. Soon, they had arrived at a long rectangular table with several fold-up chairs set up around it. There were other students already sitting there, but the younger blunette paid no attention to them as he watched the teacher's aide take the seat at the very end of the table. Fubuki took his seat to the dark teal-haired man's right side on the corner, so Johan decided to take the seat to Fubuki's right. He placed his tray down on the table, but the moment he did, he took the time to look at who was sitting across from him.

He froze in place, the other doing the same. Glares were instantly exchanged between light green eyes and light chocolate brown ones. The two tone-haired Red shoved himself up to his feet from his seat. The both of them simultaneously turned to Zane, asking the same thing in unison.

"What the hell's _he_ doing here?!"

Fubuki broke out laughing, banging his fist on the tabletop hysterically. Zane just raised an eyebrow at them before rolling his eyes and taking a bite out of his cheeseburger. To the aide's left sat the small junior with a big bush of turquoise blue hair; Sho Marufuji looked uneasy as he looked from his best friend to Johan and back several times.

The two juniors glared at each other furiously, their growls growing louder the longer their eyes stayed connected. Eventually, the little Marufuji tugged on his fellow Red's sleeve, successfully getting him to at least sit down properly.

Although everyone at the table had already retrieved their trays of food, none of them were eating, aside from Zane, in favor of watching the two boys who seemed to have some bad blood between them.

Sho leaned to his right, whispering over to the teacher's aide loudly, "How can you eat with the air so thick?"

Zane shrugged, popping a fry into his mouth and chewing on it, "It's not hard… This isn't the first time Judai's gotten into a glaring contest with somebody. Remember Santiago? And when I'm in a bad mood, he challenges _me_; albeit, he never wins…"

Judai Yuki, never taking his eyes off of the blunette in front of him, picked up his fork and bumped the flat end of it against the table, holding it beside the large bowl of spaghetti on his tray. Johan slowly took his own into his hand, poising it over his own bowl, equally sized and equally full.

Their eyes burned, challenging one another silently; who can finish their food the fastest?

The brunette's eyebrows furrowed together; _Ready?_

The new guy spun his fork expertly around his fingers before knocking its blunt end against the side of the porcelain bowl; _Go!_

Both of them immediately dug into their spaghetti, messily sending small droplets of meat sauce flying to either side of them.

The people around them watching could not tear their eyes away, for fear of missing who would come out victorious. It was evident to the spectators, however, that Judai was eating _much_ faster, even if he was also stuffing pieces of buttered toast down his throat at the same time.

A minute or so later, it was all over. Judai threw his fork down into the empty bowl, meat sauce splattered over his mouth and cheeks. A huge grin was plastered to his face as he leaned back in his chair and looked down on his opponent.

"Ha, ha, I win." He said simply, sticking his tongue out at the blunette.

Johan glared, wiping his mouth with a napkin grudgingly, "Yeah, well, that's what I get for challenging a human garbage disposal to a food duel."

"What'd y'call me now?!"

Sho sunk back into his chair, frowning deeply, "Is this how it's gonna be for the rest of the year?"

Zane smiled, shaking his head and nudging the little junior, "You've got to admit, though… They're pretty entertaining."


End file.
